IP Watch reports that the United Nations Department for Economic and Social Affairs, which is responsible for the UN Internet Governance Forum, has a new boss: Chinese career diplomat Wu Hongbo.

Google has announced it will add a new ranking parameter to its search algorithm: the number of valid copyright removal notices it receives for any given site.

Under the new algorithm, sites with high numbers of removal notices may appear lower in search results. According to Google: “This ranking change should help users find legitimate, quality sources of content more easily.”

Google specifically refers to copyright owners such as NPR, Hulu, and Spotify, when it claims that the new results should benefit legitimate media companies by raising their potential ranking in search results.

Four U.S. public interest groups have filed an amicus brief with the Washington, DC Court of Appeals claiming that the US Federal Communication Commission’s 2011 “Preserving the Open Internet” order is unconstitutional.

According to IP Watch, the coalition of interest groups argue that the 2011 order unjustly favours content providers and marginalises the constitutional rights of broadband providers. It infringes upon the First Amendment right of broadband providers because it denies them editorial discretion, thereby compelling them to impart content that they may disagree with.

Tech Freedom, the Competitive Enterprise Institute, Free State Foundation, and the Cato Institute filed an amicus brief yesterday with the Washington, DC Court of Appeals claiming that the US Federal Communication Commission’s 2011 “Preserving the Open Internet” order is unconstitutional (IP Watch)

The European Commission has launched a public consultation seeking answers to questions on transparency, switching and certain aspects of internet traffic management, with a view to its commitment to preserve the open and neutral character of the Internet.

The Commission plans to combine the information it receives from this open comment period with the recent findings of the Body of European Regulators of European Communications (BEREC) report to create practical recommendations to preserve European net neutrality.

An unconventional proposal to solve the international fight around internet governance has been put forward that would create multi-stakeholder working groups to tackle tough issues (IP Watch)

The US Department of Commerce has renewed for 5 years ICANN’s contract to administer the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) functions.

The IANA functions to be discharged by ICANN include:

• the coordination of the assignment of technical Internet protocol parameters;
• the administration of certain responsibilities associated with the Internet DNS root zone management;
• the allocation of Internet numbering resources; and
• other services related to the management of the ARPA and INT top-level domains.

In March this year, the US government cancelled its Request for Proposal to run the IANA functions, explaining it had “received no proposals that met the requirements requested by the global community”. In doing so, it issued a clear rejection to the bid by ICANN to continue its control of the naming functions of the domain name system.

According to the Department’s announcement, it has added new requirements to ICANN’s obligations, including:

• a clear separation between the policy development associated with the IANA services, and implementation by the IANA functions contractor;
• a robust company-wide conflict of interest policy;
• a heightened respect for local national law; and
• a series of consultation and reporting requirements to increase transparency and accountability

The current IANA contract held by ICANN expires on 30 September 2012. The new contract will run from 1 October 2012 to 30 September 2015, and has two 2-year option periods, for a total contract period of seven years.

IP Watch reports on the European Dialogue on Internet Governance (EuroDIG) in Stockholm last week, at which it was said that civil society should act to protect fundamental rights in cross-border law enforcement situations as governments increasingly fail to do so.

The United States stands united in its opposition to any international proposal to regulate the internet or to expand the jurisdiction of the United Nations International Telecommunication Union (ITU) over the Web, US officials said on 31 May (IP Watch)

Concerns were expressed at the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) Forum 2012 about the reluctance of the UN to hire an executive secretary for the Internet Governance Forum, the reluctance of the ITU to allow the global public to see and contribute to the coming International Telecommunication Regulations (ITR), and the need for a new UN platform for enhanced cooperation, according to an IP Watch report.