<html><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;" class=""><div dir="auto" style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;" class="">Dear colleagues,<br class=""><br class="">AFRINIC acts as the secretariat and facilitator to support community discussions and the policy development process. To deliver on this mandate, AFRINIC provides a number of inclusive, transparent and open platforms that include public meetings and mailing lists.<br class=""><br class="">Following complaints received from several community members on the virulence of exchanges on AFRINIC mailing lists and the growing number of one-off posts from incognito aliases that the community dubbed as “Internet trolls”, we published a blog in September 2020 on the Code of Conduct. <a href="https://afrinic.net/20200903-code-of-conduct" class="">https://afrinic.net/20200903-code-of-conduct</a><br class=""><br class="">Unfortunately, that did not act as a deterrent and consequently, the subscription of one subscriber to our Community mailing list was revoked following previous warning issued to the latter.<br class=""><br class="">(<a href="https://lists.afrinic.net/pipermail/community-discuss/2020-October/003736.html" class="">https://lists.afrinic.net/pipermail/community-discuss/2020-October/003736.html</a>)<br class=""><br class="">We are also awaiting the feedback from the Governance Committee pertaining to two requests made by the AFRINIC CEO in August 2020:<br class=""><br class="">- Violation of Code of Conduct on Community mailing list [<a href="https://afrinic.net/govcom/request#GC2020.04" class="">https://afrinic.net/govcom/request#GC2020.04</a>]<br class=""><br class="">- Code of Conduct Review [<a href="https://afrinic.net/govcom/request#GC2020.05" class="">https://afrinic.net/govcom/request#GC2020.05</a>].<br class=""><br class="">In the meantime, however, AFRINIC has been working on a plan of actions that will allow for verification and authentication of users of its mailing lists in our effort to safeguard the community from being subject to inappropriate behaviours. As a first step, we have developed a new set of AFRINIC Mailing Lists Terms of Use that will govern one’s subscription to AFRINIC mailing lists.<br class=""><br class=""><a href="https://afrinic.net/20210202-afrinic-mailinglists-terms-of-use" class="">https://afrinic.net/20210202-afrinic-mailinglists-terms-of-use</a><br class=""><br class="">In this respect, we hereby invite you to provide us with your valuable feedback on the aforesaid AFRINIC Mailing Lists Terms of Use in the comments section of the page (<a href="https://afrinic.net/20210202-afrinic-mailinglists-terms-of-use" class="">https://afrinic.net/20210202-afrinic-mailinglists-terms-of-use</a>).<br class=""><br class="">We look forward to receiving your feedback by 28 February 2021.<br class=""><br class="">AFRINIC shall consider your input and thereafter, take such actions as it may deem appropriate.<br class=""><br class="">Ashil Oogarah<br class="">On behalf of the AFRINIC Communications and PR Team</div></body></html>