ICANN’s decision to remove the words “diversity” and “inclusion” from its web site has prompted the first public, angry response from a community organization.
The Asia-Pacific Regional At-Large Organization, APRALO, one of the five regional groups making up the At-Large Community, wrote to ICANN’s top brass to say that “diversity, equity and inclusion” should be part of ICANN’s DNA.
As DI reported last month, ICANN buried a previously prominently linked “Diversity at ICANN” web page and changed all references to diversity and inclusion to “representation” or similar.
ICANN later said that the changes, which have not to date been reverted to the old language, were in response to “evolving external dynamics”. That’s broadly believed to be code for the Trump administration’s profound aversion to all things DEI.
Many US companies have been distancing themselves from DEI terminology since Trump took office in January, out of fear of reprisals. That includes Verisign, which deleted a section on DEI from its annual regulatory report.
But APRALO, which represents end-user groups across Asia, Australasia and the Pacific, reckons diversity is a core value of the ICANN multistakeholder model that should stay. Writing to ICANN, the group said:
ICANN is not a representative (or representational) model, but a multistakeholder participatory model that invites and welcomes broad spectrums of participation (i.e. diverse, inclusive, and not “representational”)… Therefore, the title change from “Diversity at ICANN” to “Representation at ICANN” is a misrepresentation.
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ICANN cannot claim to be a multistakeholder-based organisation if diversity, equity and inclusion is not part of its DNA.
APRALO said that ICANN should restore the old DEI language or replace it with “alternative words that truthfully retain the meaning and intent”. Org should also be more transparent when it makes these kinds of changes, the group said.
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