Question: I had a follow-question for Tiller, pertaining to race, gender, denials, awards, etc., no profanity included. That question was censored by ICANN, and evidently deleted, never seen by any candidate. If elected, would you also censor members' questions?

Nominee Replies

Lyman Chapin - posted on 2000-09-24 13:46:58 It took me a while to realize that when a member posts a question, it doesn't appear in the list of questions until at least one answer has been submitted by a candidate. I suspect that this feature is the culprit, not explicit censorship by ICANN staff. Obviously, members should see all questions that have been posted, not just those to which an answer has been submitted, if only to be able to avoid asking a question that's already been asked. Emerson Tiller, J.D., Ph.D. - posted on 2000-09-19 10:33:55 The question referred to, and my answer, are posted in the archive of Q&As and is accessible to the membership. ICANN will not post the question to the membership area until a candidate has responded. There is at anytime a variety of questions before the candidates that will not be seen by the membership broadly until a candidate has answered. My preference would be to have all questions seen, whether a candidate has responded or not. That would remove any suspicion of censorship on the Q&As. Lawrence Lessig - posted on 2000-09-19 09:10:48 The code of the system for facilitating the participation of members should never censor questions. But I am one who believes that we have not developed sufficiently civil norms for debates in cyberspace. Flaming tends to drive the sensible away. So I do believe that norms should constrain the discussion to be fair and decent. Donald Langenberg - posted on 2000-09-19 04:49:38 I think member's questions about ICANN issues should be seen by all concerned in their original form. At the same time, I believe it is the member's responsibility to make the question relevant to the issue at hand and, it goes without saying, civil and rational.