ICANN is facing an unprecedented governance storm after one of its key oversight bodies—the At-Large Advisory Committee (ALAC), representing end users—formally initiated a process to challenge a recent board decision to delay a major accountability review.
ALAC has submitted an Empowered Community Reconsideration Petition (ECRP) seeking to reverse the board’s decision to indefinitely delay the fourth Accountability and Transparency Review Team (ATRT4). According to ICANN’s bylaws, a Community Reconsideration Request (CRR) can only proceed if at least three of the five Decisional Participants (DPs) support it and no more than one objects.
In its petition, ALAC accuses the ICANN board of “usurping” community powers by delaying ATRT4, which violates the organization’s bylaws and undermines the core values of ICANN’s multistakeholder governance model. The group warns this could erode global trust in ICANN’s legitimacy and governance structure.
The ATRT process is a community-led accountability mechanism that ICANN is required to conduct every five years. The third review (ATRT3) concluded in 2020, but many of its recommendations remain unimplemented. ATRT4 had already been delayed once in April 2024, and the recent board decision seeks to replace it with a CEO-led “meta-review” that examines the purpose and structure of all reviews.
This move—effectively replacing a review with a review of reviews—has sparked significant concern within the ICANN community. One of the core challenges facing ICANN has been its sluggish pace in policy implementation, in part due to the extensive time and effort required from volunteers and part-time participants entangled in bureaucratic processes.
ALAC’s petition marks the first time since ICANN’s separation from U.S. government oversight in 2016 that a Decisional Participant has formally triggered this type of Empowered Community process. The remaining four DPs—the Government Advisory Committee (GAC), the Generic Names Supporting Organization (GNSO), the Country Code Names Supporting Organization (ccNSO), and the Address Supporting Organization (ASO)—have until midnight on July 10 to express their support or objection.
ALAC’s most likely ally is the GAC, while the GNSO, which appears puzzled by the filing, may be the most likely to oppose it.
At stake is not just the fate of a single review but the future credibility and effectiveness of ICANN’s multistakeholder governance model.
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