ICANN

The 2026 New gTLD Round: A Strategic Framework for Risk Management

The 2026 new gTLD round is less a domain application than a high-stakes contest for digital territory. Contention, objections, opaque evaluations and information gaps can derail applicants long before launch, demanding rigorous strategic preparation. more

When AI Writes the Scam: How Artificial Intelligence Is Making DNS Abuse Harder to Detect

Artificial intelligence is transforming phishing and DNS abuse, erasing the linguistic clues that once exposed scams. As attacks become personalised, automated and multilingual, governance frameworks are struggling to keep pace with a rapidly expanding threat surface. more

DOTZON Study: Digital City Brands 2026

DOTZON's Digital City Brands 2026 study crowns .tokyo as the first Asian cityTLD to top the rankings, ending .berlin's four-year reign, while highlighting the growing role of city domains in digital identity, commerce and development. more

UDRP Review Is a Test of the MSM

As ICANN confronts a harsher geopolitical era, its long-delayed review of the UDRP has become a defining test of whether the multistakeholder model can still deliver legitimate, effective Internet governance and sustain confidence in its future. more

dotBrand Domains as Trust Infrastructure in the Age of AI

As AI agents automate phishing, impersonation and domain abuse at machine scale, the Brand Registry Group argues that dotBrand domains are evolving from marketing assets into trust infrastructure underpinning cybersecurity, identity and interactions across the internet. more

The Cavalry Has Finally Arrived: ICANN Enters the Courtroom to Defend the RIR System

ICANN's court intervention in AFRINIC's winding-up case widens a local corporate dispute into a global Internet governance test, exposing weaknesses in RIR protections and strengthening calls for ICP-2 reforms to safeguard registry continuity. more

Facilitation Without Responsibility: ICANN and the Missing Warning Question - Part 3 of 3

ICANN's AFRINIC episode shows how support can harden into perceived authority. A standing RIR Boundary Protocol would force early warnings, role disclosure and procedural safeguards before regional engagement drifts into governance redesign. more

Facilitation Without Responsibility: ICANN and the Missing Warning Question - Part 2 of 3

ICANN's Smart Africa engagement shows how proposals can gain authority without formal endorsement, raising harder questions about CAIGA, ICP-2 and whether regional partnerships need earlier safeguards when RIR governance begins to shift under institutional cover. more

Facilitation Without Responsibility: ICANN and the Missing Warning Question - Part 1 of 3

An ICANN-backed African internet-governance initiative exposed a deeper institutional problem: whether global coordinators must warn when regional policy processes drift into RIR governance, before facilitation, silence and funding harden into implied legitimacy for contested reforms. more

Universal Acceptance Day and the Long Arc of Multilingualism

Universal Acceptance Day 2026 marks progress toward a multilingual internet, as UNESCO and ICANN deepen cooperation. Yet unresolved implementation failures and weak registry stewardship still hinder truly inclusive digital access worldwide. more

DNS Censorship Report Warns of Rising Domain Suspensions

ARTICLE 19 warns that governments are increasingly exploiting internet infrastructure to silence critics, using domain suspensions to block entire websites while regulators and registry operators debate how to balance online safety, technical abuse prevention and freedom of expression. more

ICANN Opens New gTLD Applications for First Time Since 2012, With $227K Entry Fee and 27 Scripts

ICANN reopens applications for new top-level domains after 14 years, charging $227,000 per bid while tightening rules, as it seeks to expand multilingual access and reshape competition in the internet's naming system. more

Authority Formation and Legitimacy in Parallel Governance Tracks

Africa's internet governance faces parallel tracks as AFRINIC's community-led reforms unfold alongside a continent-wide blueprint, raising questions over whether legitimacy will stem from participatory processes or increasingly coordinated external alignment. more

China and the Geopolitics of Africa’s 6.2 Million IPv4 Addresses

AFRINIC's fight over 6.2 million IPv4 addresses exposes how legal pressure, offshore vehicles and scarcity economics can strip Africa of leverage, turning a technical dispute into a test of sovereignty, institutional resilience and Internet governance. more

Mandate Laundering: From RIR Fantasy to Transition Architecture

Private internet registries have inflated narrow technical roles into quasi-sovereign authority, laundering mandate through ritual and rhetoric; a fragile system now faces legal, economic and political reckoning, prompting calls for coordinated transition urgent global reform. more