PORTUGAL — Web users around the world will be able to watch Friday’s meeting of the ICANN Board of Directors live via webcast, the ICANN announced in a statement released today.According to the statement released by ICANN, the proposed .xxx sTLD is “one of the main topics being discussed – and decided – during the board meeting.”

Various media outlets have reported that a vote on .xxx was expected to take place at the Lisbon meeting this week, but today’s statement stands as the most definitive to that effect to come directly from ICANN.

Dr. Hamadoun Touré, the Secretary-General of the International Telecommunications Union (ITU), will address the ICANN meeting starting at 8:30am Western European Summer Time (WEST) – 3:30am Eastern Standard Time in the U.S.

According to ICANN, following the address by Dr. Touré, the ICANN board meeting will begin at approximately 9:00am WEST (4:00am EST).

“ICANN has built a public participation website so the global Internet community can be fully involved in its public meetings,” ICANN states in its Thursday release. “Webcasting, chatrooms, and the ability to ask questions to speakers are all available.”

The full schedule of ICANN’s Lisbon meeting, as well as links to the webcast sessions and “public participation website” can be located on the ICANN website at: http://www.icann.org/meetings/lisbon/

ICANN describes its webcast and public participation site a “key part of ICANN’s commitment to be more transparent and accessible… [allowing] journalists worldwide to watch and report on the proceedings in real time.”

According to the Associated Press, members of ICANN’s Government Advisory Committee (GAC) this week again expressed concerns about unintended side effects that approval of .xxx might lead to.

Janis Karklins, chairman of the GAC, said Thursday that approval of .xxx could result in ICANN getting caught up in content regulation, a development “which would be inconsistent with its technical mandate,” said Karklins, according to the AP.

Paul Levins, ICANN’s vice president for corporate affairs, said that whether the Board votes yea or nay, a final decision on ICM Registry’s proposal for the .xxx sTLD is likely to take place tomorrow.

“They have made it very clear that the board will make a decision,” said Levins, according to the AP. “It’s pretty clear that they want to make a decision.”

ICM’s Stuart Lawley is confident that the Board will approve his company’s proposal.

“If ICANN follows its bylaws and published processes then we’ll get a positive outcome,” Lawley told the AP. “If they stick to their rules, there is only one outcome and that is approval.”

Unlike other sTLD extensions that have been approved by ICANN in the past, the proposal for .xxx is highly controversial. While ICM maintains that they have demonstrated ample support from the “sponsoring community” for the sTLD, the majority of public comment on the measure – both from within the adult industry and from the general public – has been opposed to the creation of .xxx.

Jeffrey Douglas, chairman of the Free Speech Coalition (FSC) told the AP that should .xxx be approved, “Inevitably, it means there will be a ‘ghettoization,’” of sexually explicit websites online.

“Having a wall around that community means there will be a restriction of access,” Douglas said. “Once .xxx is established, they will lose access.”

Civil liberties attorney E. Christopher Murray of the New York firm Reisman, Peirez and Reisman echoed Douglas’ concern, telling the AP that ICM’s proposal is “troubling because it will invariably lead to issues as to what sites should be designated .xxx,” and the establishment of the TLD “will encourage the censoring of the Internet by governments.”

For more information on ICANN’s meeting in Lisbon this week, refer to the materials available on the ICANN website at: http://www.icann.org/meetings/lisbon