New TLDs

The Last gTLD Round Taught Us the Wrong Lessons

Fourteen years after ICANN's last gTLD expansion, registration figures offer an incomplete verdict. The next round will test whether applicants can build namespaces with enduring relevance, rather than merely generating impressive launch volumes and revenues. more

DNS Abuse and Criminal Infrastructure: Beyond Definitions and Blocklists

Research suggests criminals may control a striking share of newly registered gTLD domains, raising questions about whether ICANN's definitions, contractual safeguards and enforcement mechanisms are keeping pace with the industrial scale of technology-facilitated harm. more

Whose Precedent Gets Remembered? Selective Amplification Has Its Own Amnesia

DotConnectAfrica's landmark .AFRICA IRP victory established an ICANN accountability precedent later expressly invoked by Amazon. Selective amplification has since detached that precedent from its origins, distorting the historical record. more

ICANN Should Immediately Clarify if Applicants for the Same String Can Communicate Before Reveal Day

With more than 1,600 applications filed for ICANN's 2026 new gTLD Round, self-revealing applicants face uncertainty over whether pre-Reveal Day communications and agreements about overlapping strings could violate strict rules against privately resolving contention sets. more

The Long Wait for .web Ends

After a decade of legal disputes, Verisign has secured .web and will launch the long-awaited domain later this year, opening a new chapter in digital identity while raising fresh questions about pricing, adoption and competition. more

The Role of Artificial Intelligence in ICANN’s 2026 Round of gTLD Applications

AI can help applicants navigate ICANN's complex new gTLD process, from business planning and financial modeling to drafting and reviewing applications, pointing towards faster, cheaper and increasingly automated domain-name rounds in the future. more

The Business Value of dotBrand: Twelve Real-World Success Stories

Twelve real-world dotBrand success stories show how organizations strengthen trust, improve security, simplify customer experiences, and create measurable business value. From AI-driven innovation to global digital ecosystems, dotBrand domains are becoming essential infrastructure worldwide today. more

The UN Needs Its Identity in the Digital Space - a Case for .UN Top-Level Domain

As AI systems increasingly mediate trust online, the United Nations faces a closing opportunity to secure a sovereign .un domain, creating a machine-readable digital identity that strengthens authenticity, preserves institutional knowledge, and counters impersonation. more

Securing Digital Brand Borders in a Fragmented World

GlobalBlock's expansion into China and Germany signals a shift from reactive brand protection to centralized prevention, as firms seek scalable, cost efficient defences against proliferating AI driven domain abuse worldwide amid a fragmented digital landscape. more

The IRP Docket Speaks Louder Than Theory - A Response to Charles Mok on ICANN and AI Governance

A critique of ICANN's multi-stakeholder model argues that its accountability record, revealed through more than a dozen IRP disputes, shows structural failures that should caution policymakers seeking institutional blueprints for governing artificial intelligence systems globally. more

When the Registry Itself Is Contested: The Unseen Geopolitical Risk in the 2026 gTLD Round

As the 2026 gTLD round opens, applicants face an overlooked geopolitical hazard: what happens if the registry or RIR underpinning their domain collapses under sanctions or war, leaving contracts stranded and accountability elusive. more

An Open Letter to the ICANN Community: Not the Community Priority Evaluation We Intended

Today, I share a warning about serious changes to the Community Priority Evaluation (CPE) of the New gTLD Applicant Guidebook. They are not driven by public comment, but by a few voices within the SubPro Implementation Review Team - and they are very likely to lead to disastrous misappropriation of well-known community names, including those of Tribes, Indigenous Peoples and NGOs around the world. more

Reporting To God

"GOD, at least in the West, is often represented as a man with a flowing beard and sandals. Users of the Internet might be forgiven for feeling that nature is imitating art — for if the Net does have a god he is probably Jon Postel" (The Economist, Feb. 1997) David W. Maher, Senior Vice President, Law and Policy of Public Interest Registry (PIR) offers his reminiscence of the early days of the Internet and attempts made to restructure the Domain Name System — an article he has entitled 'Reporting to God'. more

Attacking DNS Abuse: The Next Amendments Needed

Abusive behavior that leverages the domain name system (DNS) continues to be a problem, with a reach that has been widely and credibly documented. There is little doubt that bad actors continue to use the DNS for nefarious and costly purposes. While the amendments made in 2024 to ICANN's Registry Agreement (RA) and Registrar Accreditation Agreement (RAA) were a step in the right direction, more advanced tools are needed to bring abuse rates down. more

Who Is Really Behind the Plan to Block .Web?

In May of this year, I questioned whether the continued legal maneuvering of a company called Altanovo Domains Ltd. (Altanovo) could further delay the launch of .web. After reading its second Independent Review Process (IRP) complaint, and ICANN's response, it seems that the unfortunate answer is a resounding "yes," or at least that is Altanovo's intent. more