Over the past year, heightened attention and scrutiny has been paid to how the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) addresses conflicts of interest.
ICANN says it has a “robust” conflict of interest policy and code of conduct in place, but work has been ongoing with the community to enhance the organization’s ethical culture.
The corporation engaged a team of international ethics experts to provide recommendations for the enhancement of its ethical culture, drawing on international sources, including practices in other not-for-profit organizations.
“The board has finalized and announced rules on how directors with interests in specific new generic top-level domain name (gTLD) applications may participate in new gTLD-related discussions and in post-board service activities,” ICANN stated.
“In addition ICANN announced stringent communication rules for its staff regarding communications with potential new gTLD applicants.”