Marita Moll, NARALO ALAC Member and Telecommunities Canada Representative.

Telecommunities Canada (TC) was formed during a meeting in Ottawa, Canada in the summer of 1994. What began as a group of Free-Nets has evolved into a loose alliance of community networks and other organizations as well as individuals acting together as a community of practice for sharing and advocating the experience of community online.

TC is a registered non-profit community organization whose mandate is:

• To ensure that all Canadians are able to participate in community-based communications and electronic information services by promoting and supporting local community network initiatives.
• To represent and promote the Canadian community networking movement at the national and international level.

At the national level, TC has intervened in many legislative and regulatory initiatives over the years - sometimes submitting comments, sometimes supporting member initiatives, always supporting positions derived from end user needs and perspectives. 

On the international front, TC representatives helped establish NARALO, which was the last of five global regions within ICANN At-Large to form, thus completing ICANN's intended international infrastructure for an At-Large Advisory Committee (ALAC). NARALO officially became part of ICANN at a signing ceremony in San Juan, Puerto Rico on June 28, 2007. Former TC Boardmember, Darlene Thompson was a member of the NARALO Secretariat. Then TC President, Gareth Shearman, held one of the two formal NARALO positions on ALAC. TC president, Marita Moll, assumed this responsibility at the ICANN63 meeting in Barcelona.

TC has also intervened in American Registry for Internet Numbers (ARIN) policy development process regarding the introduction of IPV6 and the impact of this process on community networks, recently contributing to a definition of community networks at ARIN.

In our statement, "Beyond the Information Society" presented during a 2005 civil society conference seeking Canadian input for WSIS II, TC argued for a world which enables communities to access and use the resources they need, including electronic resources, to improve their condition and position in a globalized context. This includes sustained financial and program resources that support community-based digital initiatives.

In a very short period of time, new technologies have changed how we work and how we play. Unfortunately, policy and practice have not always moved in lock step. We continue to seek opportunities to help reconnect the two.

For more information see the TC website or  email Marita Moll.

David Morar, NARALO Member.

You do not have to be a fan of conspiracy theories to worry about the precedent that  Apple , YouTube and  Facebook set by banning Alex Jones and Infowars.com. Jones complained that it was like "something out of '1984'', as he does not know how to rebut Facebook's decision. The company does not divulge how it makes these decisions, for fear that users would deliberately push boundaries.

Jones is not alone in being concerned with the seemingly authoritarian power of tech giants to decide what gets removed in an opaque content-moderation process. As de facto arbiters of speech and access to audiences, companies with such consolidated publishing power have unique responsibilities to be transparent with the public.

Instead of making decisions in private isolation, companies would do better by engaging one another and their users to shape content-moderation policies in a more transparent and consistent way. We propose a deliberative body, a "content congress" where stakeholders - including companies, civil society groups and even constituencies of end users - could hash out best practices, air grievances, and offer rebuttals.

How would it work? Multistakeholder initiatives take varied forms, and we are not advocating for a specific one. We offer multistakeholderism because simple calls for government regulation or self regulation are not enough - the public wants input. Such a body should not be a legally binding authority but an arena for transparent coordination, public representation and human engagement in an industry dominated by algorithms and machines. Companies want feedback; government wants more insight into decision-making; and people want to be heard.

The content congress should have issue-based working groups, which would proactively or reactively address complicated use cases. For instance, how do you address videos depicting unjust violence or death? Facebook faced backlash for censoring videos of police brutality that resulted in on-camera death posted by social justice groups. How do you curb pornography, without censoring images of female breasts in instances of breastfeeding or health advocacy?

And what should the protocol be when social media stars inspire violent trolls among their followers? A content congress could facilitate a transparent process in handling Jones, whose fans harassed the parents of Sandy Hook victims, or Milo Yiannopoulos, whose followers hacked actress Leslie Jones's website and harassed her until she left  Twitter . Given the public nature of a content congress, Messrs. Jones and Yiannpoulos would probably have a say too.

For private companies to be part of such a loose organisation might sound strange, but there is a precedent. The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), a nonprofit governance body, maintains the functions of the Domain Name System (DNS) through multistakeholder decision making. Early Internet advocates rejected direct government control and sought a more open and inclusive way to make policy; ICANN, with its sometimes slow or complex decision-making, was the answer. Stakeholders include businesses, nonprofits, activists and governments.

Another example is the Global Network Initiative, an international nonprofit dedicated to Internet freedom and privacy rights. Drawing from the expertise of stakeholders ranging from the Harvard Berkman-Klein Center to the Committee to Protect Journalists, it helps companies like Facebook and  Vodafone resist government requests to surveil or censor users and their communications.

Beyond tech, there are similar examples in the finance industry's coordination to fix systemic issues and avoid disaster. Algorithmically enhanced trading once posed a threat to healthy financial markets in creating volatile high frequency trading. Proactive self regulation through the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority brought together industry stakeholders to come up with solutions, staving off disaster and more government regulation.

Multistakeholder initiatives can be complex and slow, but they are preferable to the current slew of black box content moderation practices, or to heavy handed government regulation. Many communities online - left, right and center - have experienced the arbitrary decision making of powerful content platforms. These frustrated communities are starting to call their representatives to demand government action.

Companies would do well to be proactive by engaging each other and stakeholders in solution making before governments or courts step in. Recently, key industry players expressed their willingness to collectively discuss their content moderation practices in a more open forum. This participation is a signal of goodwill and an opportunity to create a sustainable, innovative multistakeholder body within the industry.

Danielle Tomson is the director of the Personal Democracy Forum. David Morar recently received his doctorate from George Mason University's Schar School. This blog post first appeared in the Opinion / Commentary section of the Wall Street Journal and is being republished here with the permission of the authors.

IGF Paris Update

Unfortunately, the trip to the American Registry for Internet Numbers (ARIN) meeting for early October was not approved due to delays in the process. We will be replacing this trip with a relevant ICANN related event in North America in consultation with staff.

Don't forget to apply soon for upcoming CROP trips in the Spring!

ARIN Meeting: April 7-10, 2019 in Bridgetown, Barbados

Open to one NARALO traveler.

Details here.  Apply here .

Applications due: 10 January 10 2019 @ 11:59 pm (PST)

Please note that the GSE has approved our out of region trip to this location as a one time approval. An independent committee will evaluate the applications and select the recipient. If Canadian or American, you will need an up-to-date passport. Open to any ALS member or unaffiliated member.

Digital Inclusion Conference: April 1-3, 2019 in Charlotte, North Carolina

Open to one NARALO traveler.

Details: Hosted by the National Digital Inclusion Alliance.  Apply here .

Applications due: 10 January 10 2019 @ 11:59 pm (PST)

An independent committee will evaluate the applications and select the recipient. If American or Canadian, you will need an up-to-date passport. Open to any ALS member or unaffiliated member.

Through the FY19 Additional Budget Request process, each of the five RALOs has been granted $4,000 for targeted local discretionary funds toward RALO outreach and engagement activities such as ALS read-out sessions, promotional displays and graphics and regional travel. 

For more information, including the application form and criteria, please see the   related workspace.