Sorry Beckstrom, You Ought to Have Voted on .XXX

ICANN CEO’s abstention from .xxx vote is weak.

During ICANN’s meeting in San Francisco last month a number of board members gave their rationale for or against .xxx. Some members abstained and stated their reason.

So it was a little odd when ICANN CEO Rod Beckstrom didn’t vote. He whispered something away from the microphone to chair Peter Dengate Thrush regarding publishing his reason for not voting, but it was barely audible.

His rationale has now been published, albeit discretely. His statement (last page of this pdf) seems to indicate that he would have voted against .xxx. (At least it doesn’t give any reason he would vote for it.)

Clearly he is worried regarding legal risks as CEO of the firm. And it wouldn’t look good if the CEO voted on the opposite side of an issue than his board. But when you get paid $750,000 a year, you’re expected to put yourself out there. You have plenty of insurance from your organization against personal legal risk and get paid a hefty salary.

Not voting — and worse, not giving your reason publicly the same way the rest of the board did — is inexcusable.

(via @thereforeICANN)