News Briefs

CENTR Releases Paper on Why We Need Multistakeholder Internet Governance

In a recently released paper by the Council of European National Top-level Domain Registries (CENTR), authored in collaboration with Chris Buckridge, the spotlight is once again on the multistakeholder approach to Internet governance. more

Russians Take to the Streets to Protest Against New Internet Restrictions

Thousands of Russians in Moscow and other cities rallied on Sunday against tighter internet restrictions. The protest is reported to be one of the most prominent in the Russian capital in years. more

Application Fees for New gTLDs Could Be Artificially Kept High

"It's possible that application fees for new gTLDs could be artificially propped up in order to discourage gaming," reports Kevin Murphy in Domain Incite. more

Investigation Reveals Massive Security and Privacy Breaches Affecting Chinese Version of Skype

Canadian human-rights activists and computer security researchers have released a report on the extensive surveillance system in China that monitors and archives text conversations that include politically charged words. The research group, called Information Warfare Monitor, is a joint project of The SecDev Group, and the Citizen Lab, at the Munk Centre for International Studies, University of Toronto. The following are introductory excerpts from the study... more

NTIA Reveals How It Manages the Root Zone

Kieren McCarthy reporting in the Register: "The US government has posted a step-by-step guide to how it authorizes changes to the internet's root zone -- the heart of the world's domain-name system. The 16-page slide deck published by the Department of Commerce's National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) sheds light on what has been a contentious and largely secret process for the past 15 years." more

SpaceX Restricts Ukraine’s Use of Its Satellite Internet for Drones

SpaceX's Starlink satellite internet service has been seen as a great hope for connecting people in hard-to-reach areas, but it has also raised fears about the potential for weaponization and other abuse. According to COO Gwynne Shotwell, the company is pleased to help Ukraine in its "fight for freedom," but Starlink was "never intended to be weaponized." more

Neustar Launches KickStart America Campaign with .US Domain

Neustar, Inc. begins a "Kick-start America" campaign for the .US Top-Level Domain. Companies of all sizes -- locally-based or doing business in the United States -- are encouraged to demonstrate their local presence with "America's Address." more

Wireless Carriers Clashing with FCC Over Proposed Regulations on Mobile Advertising

US Federal Communications Commission is proposing privacy rules that wireless companies claim could hurt their ability to compete with the likes of Facebook and Google. more

Paul Mockapetris to Serve as Senior Security Advisor to ICANN’s Generic Domains Division

ICANN has announced that Paul Mockapetris, inventor of the Domain Name System (DNS), has agreed to serve as Senior Security Advisor to the Generic Domains Division and its President, Akram Atallah. more

Sally Wentworth Appointed as New CEO of the Internet Society

The Internet Society has appointed Sally Wentworth as its new President and CEO, effective September 1, 2024. Wentworth, who has been with the organization since 2009, previously served as Managing Director and Vice President of Policy, where she played a pivotal role in shaping global Internet policy. more

Website Usage Trends Among Top-Level Domains

EURid and Leuven Statistics Research Centre have released the results of a study investigating websites under most popular top-level domains. more

Afghanistan Enacts Law Targeting Online Crime and Militancy

Afghanistan's President Ashraf Ghani has signed into law a cybercrime bill this week targeting online crime and militancy by groups such as the Taliban and Islamic State despite concerns it could limit free speech. more

Verizon and AWS Expand Network Ties to Meet AI Data Demands

Verizon and AWS have deepened their collaboration to build dedicated fiber infrastructure, addressing the growing need for low-latency, high-capacity connectivity to support the rapid expansion of enterprise-scale artificial intelligence workloads. more

Iran Begins Roll Out of “National Internet”

Iran has announced the launch of its first ever national data network. The inauguration ceremony was held on Saturday by country's communications and information technology minister, Mahmoud Vaezi. more

ISOC-NY Event: dot nyc - How Are We Doing? (Sat Apr 10)

Joly MacFie writes: Last October the NYC Department of Information Technology & Telecommunications (DoITT) issued a request for proposals for "services to obtain, manage, administer, maintain and market the geographic Top Domain name .nyc.". At ICANN's recent 37th meeting in Nairobi, consensus was reached on the "overarching" issue of intellectual property protection. This leaves only the issue of the final (4th) draft of the Applicants Guidebook, expected before the 38th meeting in Brussels in June 2010... more