[NCUC-DISCUSS] Facebook as an obligatory requirement for being ICANN60 fellow

[Michael Karanicolas]

Hi Dina,

Thanks very much for bringing this to our attention. You raise a very
interesting issue - and I agree, in principle, that signing up for
Facebook should not be a required component of participating in an
ICANN Fellowship program.

Would you feel comfortable forwarding or screenshot-ing the email in
its entirety, just so we can see the full context as a means of
informing this discussion?

In the interim, and while this discussion goes on, it may be useful if
you wanted to raise your concerns directly with Siranush, if you
haven't already. Your objection would seem to me to be a valid one, so
it might be interesting to see how ICANN might respond.

Best,

Michael Karanicolas

On Thu, Jul 27, 2017 at 4:23 PM, thomascovenant
<thomascovenant at thomascovenant.org> wrote:
> Hello,
>
> I am writing about a general matter that can still be quite important to
> some.
>
> I respectfully disagree with making Facebook obligatory for ICANN
> Fellowship program participation, yet it doesn't seem possible
> to question this decision.
>
> Further, the decision to deny fellowship to those who do not comply with
> Facebook demand makes no sense to me.
>
> I would welcome diverse participation of FOSS community, privacy
> activists and ethical hacking communities in ICANN work. It can be very
> valuable.
>
> I don't want any single fellow be forced to compromise their principles
> in order to make volunteer contribution to ICANN work (please read the
> links below).
>
> At the moment this is solved by forcing to register under a false name,
> which is not the right thing to do on behalf of a large organization.
>
> Alternative means of communication should be easily available to those
> who ask for them, minor detail of communication platform should not be
> the reason to discourage volunteer work.
>
> We also have Chinese and Iranian fellows. Some countries impose FB
> cencorship (wiki link below), which can also be an issue...
>
> What are your thoughts on this general subject? And how a good solution
> can be found?
>
> Best regards,
>
> Dina Solveig Jalkanen,
> grateful for technical fellowship to ICANN60
>
> Resources:
>
> FB Censorship: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Censorship_of_Facebook
> Some information about Facebook from Richard Stallman:
> https://stallman.org/facebook.htm
> http://www.salimvirani.com/facebook
>
> From public Fellowship emails by Siranush Vardanyan
> Fellowship Program Manager, Public Responsibility Support, ICANN:
>
> "Last but not least: Social Media I will be creating an ICANN60 Facebook
> page which is a required participation for this program.
> Those who do not have Facebook page, please, create one, as you will be
> asked to join ICANN60 Facebook page."
> --
> * * *
> Friendly geek in Amsterdam, FSFE Fellow
> https://wiki.techinc.nl/index.php/User:Thomascovenant
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