ICANN

ICANN Terminates Two Registrars as DNS Abuse and Compliance Failures Escalate

ICANN has terminated two registrar accreditation agreements after unresolved compliance failures, citing Trustname's handling of DNS abuse and IPIP's failures involving RDAP, registration data escrow, accreditation fees, and access to non-public registration data. more

ICANN’s New Data Sharpens the Picture of DNS-abuse Enforcement

ICANN's updated DNS-abuse data distinguishes allegations from actionable complaints and malicious registrations from compromised domains, offering a clearer test of whether tougher contractual requirements are strengthening enforcement or simply generating a larger volume of reports. more

ICANN to Shut Down Open Data Platform and API September 1

ICANN will retire its Open Data Platform and API on September 1, shifting datasets to downloadable CSV files and forcing researchers, registries and domain-industry organizations to update automated workflows that rely on programmatic data access. more

AI Is Rewriting the Internet. But in Whose Language?

AI is becoming a gateway to the internet, but thousands of languages remain excluded. Closing the gap requires multilingual infrastructure, representative training data and policies that make linguistic inclusion a foundation of the AI era. more

Beyond Protocol and Policy: Why Project Jake is Reshaping the Architecture of Internet Trust

Project Jake aims to bridge the divide between internet protocols and policy, offering registries, law enforcement and rights holders a decentralised framework for accessing domain-registration data securely while navigating privacy laws and institutional gridlock. more

Open-Weight AI: Open to Whom?

The push for open-weight AI promises broader access and competition, but true openness requires more than releasing model weights. Compute, infrastructure, training data, security, and control ultimately determine who can meaningfully benefit from open AI. more

After the Close: What the 2026 gTLD Round Has Already Revealed

ICANN's 2026 gTLD round drew more than 1,600 applications, led by ambitious portfolio investors. But scant brand disclosures and new rules banning private settlements could make contention costlier and reshape the economics of domain ownership. more

AFRINIC’s Constitution Is Africa’s Next Internet Stress Test

AFRINIC's proposed Constitution offers Africa's troubled internet registry a chance to turn years of litigation, disputed elections and institutional paralysis into durable governance, provided reforms constrain external capture, internal concentration and administrative overreach alike. more

ICANN Draws More Than 1,600 Applications in New gTLD Round

ICANN has received more than 1,600 applications for new generic top-level domains, setting the stage for administrative checks, public disclosure and potentially fierce competition over sought-after additions to the internet's expanding domain-name system. more

Now That You’ve Applied for a New gTLD, Should You Reveal?

With applications closed, new gTLD hopefuls face a changed calculation: revealing strings early could expose contention while information remains financially valuable, helping applicants make better decisions before fees are paid and withdrawal becomes increasingly costly. more

ICANN’s New gTLD Application Window Set to Close, Capping a Landmark Expansion Round

ICANN's second major domain expansion round closes August 12, with costly applications, support for 27 non-Latin scripts and stricter technical vetting setting the stage for a broader, more multilingual internet naming system. more

Beyond DUMs: The Case for Tracking What a Namespace Is Made Of

Domains Under Management (DUM) measures a namespace's size, but not its character. Structural composition could reveal whether growth reflects durable adoption, speculative holdings or noise, giving registries a richer view of namespace health and strategy. more

Call for Participation: DNSSEC and Security Workshop at ICANN87 (21 October 2026)

ICANN is inviting proposals for its DNSSEC and Security Workshop at ICANN 87, offering experts and practitioners a platform to share insights on DNS security, routing security, browser security, and emerging Internet infrastructure challenges. more

ICANN Wiki, SHE.africa, AI, and the Integrity of Digital Platforms

As AI increasingly relies on digital archives, the quiet revision of ICANNWiki entries raises broader questions about platform accountability, historical integrity, and whether institutions can reshape the records that future researchers and machines will treat as fact. more

The 2024-2026 Root Zone KSK Rollover: Updates and Observations

Roughly a year and a half ago, Verisign and ICANN began the important, multi-year process of updating the cryptographic key that secures the authoritative DNS root zone. This work has been largely invisible to the public, but vital to the security of many everyday online activities. more