ICANN80: Rwanda joins the small circle of sub-Saharan states to have hosted ICANN

ICANN80: Rwanda joins the small circle of sub-Saharan states to have hosted ICANN

Following on from Paris, which hosted the ICANN Contracted Parties Summit last May, the Rwandan capital has just hosted its first ICANN Summit devoted to Internet governance policy issues. Here’s a look back at what we learned from the event.

ICANN has found its new face

ICANN80 kicked off with the official appointment of Kurt Erik “Kurtis” Lindqvist as the future President and CEO of the organization. The 49-year-old Finn will officially succeed his predecessor Goran Marby, of Swedish origin, who resigned at the end of 2022. Sally Costerton’s interim appointment will therefore end on December 4, 2024, with Mr. Lindqvist officially taking office on December 5, 2024. Mr. Lindqvist has been CEO of the London Internet Exchange (LINX) since 2019. His appointment is the culmination of a long process that began with the creation of a search committee for a CEO. Initially, some 100 candidates representing over 20 countries in North and South America, Africa, Europe, Asia and Australasia were identified. After further evaluation, the list was whittled down to seven people (three women and four men) who were interviewed by the CEO’s selection committee. The selection process ended with the ICANN Board unanimously approving the choice of Mr. Lindqvist at a session held just before ICANN80. A first, the new CEO will be based in Geneva in Switzerland.

Spotlight on the Internet in Africa

You have to go back to June 2017 to find a city in sub-Saharan Africa hosting ICANN. Johannesburg, South Africa’s most populous city, hosted ICANN59. In June 2024, ICANN finally returned to Africa, with Rwanda as host country. A very good thing, given that Africa is still largely under-resourced when it comes to Internet access. The International Telecommunication Union estimated that by the end of 2021, 14.3% of African households had access to the Internet, compared with 57.4% worldwide. Fixed Internet connection is also more expensive than in other regions of the world in proportion to income. It represents 18.6% of gross national income (GNI) per capita, compared with a global average of 2.8%. The GAC, the body representing governments at ICANN, took advantage of the event in Kigali to organize a “High Level” governmental meeting. This brought together 50 countries with four sessions on the multi-stakeholder model, cooperation and governance, digital inclusion and support for connectivity. These issues are also at the heart of the United Nations’ Global Digital Compact, which calls for a more inclusive and equitable Internet. The African At-Large Regional Organization (AFRALO), one of the five At-Large regional organizations within ICANN (At-Large represents end-users), kicked off ICANN80 week with a round-table discussion on improving Internet infrastructure in Africa. For its part, ICANN Org recalled during the week’s Summit that in 2022 and 2023 two root servers have been made operational in Nairobi, Kenya and Cairo, Egypt. Most DNS root queries based on Africa therefore are now resolved in Africa. For example, the root server in Nairobi, Kenya, handles 40% of all DNS root requests for the continent. Prior to its installation, 35% to 40% of DNS query traffic traveled outside Africa for resolution. The two installations also increase the resilience of the global root server system for Internet users on the continent, and help to cope with the exponential increase in traffic expected on the continent over the next few years.

The promise of the next round of new generic extensions : an estimate of application fees finally made public

No fewer than eight sessions held on the first day of the summit addressed the future series of new generic extensions. ICANN Org pointed out that this program is designed to make the Internet more inclusive, relying in particular on the success of Internet extensions in users’ own languages – the so called internationalized extensions or IDNs. To date, there are 91 internationalized extensions among the 1172 generic extensions, a relatively low proportion. In country-code Top Level Domains (ccTLDs), the proportion of internationalized extensions is almost three times bigger, representing nearly 20% of the total. ICANN Org promotes this new series by pointing out the opportunity to create new generic extensions in native languages. For its part, the GAC is pushing for greater support for less-favored geographical areas. The intention is to make the new program more accessible to these areas with financial and operational support. ICANN Org has considered an amount of 2 million USD for this item, whereas the GAC estimates that the needs are more in the region of 10-16 million USD. The GAC has indicated that it hopes to be able to support at least 45 applications. 

These considerations obviously have to be set against the costs of a future application for a new gTLD project. On this much-anticipated point, ICANN Org has presented projections based on the number of applications received. While in 2012 there were 1,930 applications leading to some 1,240 delegated extensions, some of which have since been abandoned, we don’t know how successful the next round, which opens in April 2026, will be.

To recover its costs, ICANN Org estimates that the application fee should be 293,000 USD for 500 applications, 242,000 USD for 1,000 applications and 208,000 USD for 2,000 applications. In 2012, the application fee was 185,000 USD. It should also be noted that the median value of application fees submitted is around 259,000 USD.

A partial reimbursement of costs is considered if the costs retained prove to have been overestimated in view of a higher-than-estimated volume of applications. The question has been raised of how to reduce these fees, which means cutting budgets. ICANN Org has indicated that 13 million USD will be allocated to this program over 2025, for example, in staffing costs. As ICANN already has an operating budget that covers its payroll costs, question has been raised if these expenses are not covered twice (by the operational budget and the new gTLD program budget).

DNS abuse: first lessons from the contract amendments

ICANN80 was also an opportunity to take stock of the implementation of contractual amendments by registries and registrars to include remediation obligations for obvious DNS abuses such as phishing, malware or pharming practices. These measures came into force on April 5. ICANN’s Compliance Department reported that it had received 1,558 abuse-related complaints. 1,382 were invalid, either because they were not sufficiently substantiated or documented, or because they fell outside the organization’s scope of action. Some of them concerned ccTLDs (country code Top Level Domains) where ICANN has no jurisdiction. ICANN also reiterated that obvious abuses must first be reported to the registry operators and registrars who manage the concerned domain names.

ICANN80 remained above all a working summit with few announcements even if the new face of the organization was made official, information that nevertheless had been leaked a few days earlier. The appointment of « Kurtis » Lindqvist should not overshadow the fact that Sally Costerton has been acting as interim president of the organization for almost a year and a half now, and that during this time her determination has undoubtedly ensured that some topics move significantly forward, in particular the next series of new generic extensions which is now well underway. Work on implementing the policies and the future bidding applicant guide is progressing, and the bidding window envisaged for April – June 2026 now seems attainable. The range of application fees announced remains imprecise, ranging from 208,000 to 293,000 USD, depending on the volume of applications expected. While internationalized extensions were in the spotlight, it is above all geographical extensions and trademark extensions, the so called dot brands that are the most relevant. They will be an ally in the service of the security, performance and reputation of their owners. A genuine asset in an increasingly complex regulatory and legislative environment where cyber attacks are becoming increasingly sophisticated.  To make a success of your future extension project and benefit from optimized solutions for your online assets, the key is to be well accompanied.

Image source : ICANN‘s website

From May 7 to 9, Paris hosted the ICANN Contracting Parties Summit

From May 7 to 9, Paris hosted the ICANN Contracting Parties Summit.

The last time Paris hosted ICANN was in 2008 for ICANN32. Sixteen years later, ICANN returns to the French capital for the Contracted Parties Summit. The latter is a special event in the organization’s agenda, as it is not a policy-oriented event like the three annual summits flanked by the edition number (Editor’s note: ICANN79, for example). Before the covid pandemic, ICANN met its stakeholders once a year at a dedicated event. These summits, highly focused on operational aspects, only resumed in 2022 and now only take place every two years.

Over the course of three days, the contracting parties – registry operators and registrars – have the opportunity, during working sessions, to communicate their needs to the organization by directly questioning the ICANN Board of Directors, and to exchange views on common issues. In particular, these meetings provide an opportunity to compare approaches to policy changes and contractual modifications to be implemented, while also taking into account changes in the regulatory and legislative framework. One of the three days was entirely devoted to workshops on the abuses to which the contracts of the contracting parties have evolved in 2024.

Although only 150 to 250 people in total took part in the event, with the public holiday no doubt having a negative impact on attendance, it has to be said that there was plenty to do on the subjects that directly impact the contracting parties.

As a consequence of the GDPR in force since 2018, a perennial policy, the Registration Data Policy has just been promulgated to replace the Temporary Specification. This must be implemented by August 2025. Stakeholders also had to implement two amendments to their contracts with ICANN. The first was a protocol transition from Whois to RDAP (Registration Data Access Protocol). The second concerns abuse, with new obligations that make contractors more accountable in the event of proven abuse. The summit provided an opportunity to hear initial feedback on this major issue, to which some service providers are more exposed than others. To this the legislative framework can be added, in particular the European NIS2 cyber security directive, which will also have a major impact on registries, DNS resolution service providers and registrars.  It will come into force in October of this year. The most advanced countries in terms of transposition into national law, notably Croatia and Belgium, have shown that they are fully in line with the initial text voted by the European Parliament at the end of 2022. And the next round of new generic extensions must be prepared for the next application window announced for April 2026.  

From now on, ICANN will be meeting the Internet community in Kigali, Rwanda, from June 10 to 13, to discuss developments in Internet naming policies. This will be ICANN80.

Image source : edmondlafoto via Pixabay

.TR: Extended priority period for the .TR extension in category 3

.TR Extended priority period

On February 14, we announced the opening of .TR registrations in category 3. This period was initially open until May 14, 2024.

TRABİS recently announced that this priority period for the “.TR” (category3) application for domains holders will be extended until August 7, 2024.

You still have until August 2024 to apply for a .TR equivalent to your existing .COM.TR / .ORG.TR / .NET.TR domain names.

The .TR opening to all is therefore also postponed, and will be announced at a later date.

Do not hesitate to contact your consultants and account managers if you have not yet reviewed your domain names portfolio in Turkey.

User trust at the heart of the latest CSA Summit in Cologne

From 22 to 24 April, Cologne hosted the Certified Senders Alliance Summit on the theme of “Trust fuels the future”. The event marked the 20th anniversary of the initiative.

Corporate communications have changed dramatically over the last 20 years with the rise of social networks. For example, Instagram now has more than 2 billion monthly users, YouTube more than 2.5 billion and Facebook more than 3 billion. These platforms were all launched between 2004 and 2010. While they have become an integral part of companies’ communications plans for addressing their users, the use of email is still very high, as there are still so many uses for email: sending email campaigns, newsletters, invoices or for example order confirmations. According to Statista, the overall volume of emails increased by 4.3% in 2023 compared with the previous year, with almost 347.3 billion emails sent worldwide every day. Another fact: on average, a person receives around 121 emails a day. These figures underline that email is not about to disappear.

Gartner nevertheless points out that concerns about email security are growing, with few companies escaping security incidents, with increasingly sophisticated phishing attacks using malicious links or attachments, for example, and data losses often linked to careless behaviour or human error. With this in mind, every year CSA brings together experts from the email ecosystem to discuss best practices and solutions for improving email quality and trust. The event is organised around a series of workshops, sessions, conferences and masterclasses.

Nameshield, which sponsored the event, pointed out that there can be no email security without secure domain names, which are critical business assets, and without a robust, high-performance DNS infrastructure. Email security therefore depends on the choice of your domain name provider and the cyber-security solutions it is able to offer its customers. These include the DMARC protocol, which protects users against fraudulent messages. Customised brand extensions also known as dot brands are another way of building brand confidence in the run-up to the next round of new generic extensions scheduled for April 2026.

Contact your Nameshield consultant for more information on all our solutions.

ICANN79: A summit that builds on decisions taken in 2023

ICANN79

After ICANN29 in 2007 and ICANN61 in 2018, Puerto Rico hosted its third Internet Governance Summit, ICANN79, at the beginning of March. Six days of meetings, exchanges and encounters in a studious atmosphere, with ongoing issues moving forward. The star topic: the next round of new generic extensions. Other major subjects, such as the NIS2 European cybersecurity directive and the appointment of a new President for the organisation, were discussed on the sidelines.

Three women at the centre of ICANN: Tripti Sinha on the left, Manal Ismail in the centre and Sally Costerton on the right

The next round of new generic extensions, a priority topic

On Saturday 2 March, the launch day of ICANN79, a session was held on the implementation of the recommendations from the Subpro policy development process (PDP), which aims to enable the launch of the next series of new generic Top level domains. This constituted an initial focus on this central issue, which is now bound to come to a conclusion as the next application window has been set for April 2026.

At this first session, attention was focused on the recommendations that the ICANN Board had not adopted as part of a resolution on the PDP passed in March 2023. At the previous summit (ICANN78), 14 recommendations remained outstanding, 6 were rejected. The body responsible for generic policies, the GNSO (Generic Naming Supporting Organization), which has got into the habit of creating small teams to work on blocking issues, has invited a small team to address these recommendations. At the same time, an implementation team is working on other recommendations approved by the ICANN Board and on the new version of the Applicant guide book. This central document for future applications is currently being written. Its finalised version should be available by the end of next year at the latest. At the end of ICANN79’s week of debates, it was clear that the work carried out during the many sessions on the next round had been fruitful. The Small Team found a compromise on the recommendations not approved by the ICANN Board and was even able to avoid a meeting scheduled in the summit agenda.

At least twelve ongoing topics

A GNSO session on Sunday provided an inventory of the policy development processes underway and those still being studied, such as the accuracy of registration data. The list includes at least twelve topics, some of which are blocked and where, due to the length of the process, the history is sometimes difficult to find for current GNSO members. This is the case for the protection of the names of inter- and non-inter-governmental organizations. Examples include the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and the Red Cross. In 2012, a PDP was launched to study the question of specific protection for the names of these bodies, bearing in mind that the contracts of the registry operators of the new generic extensions resulting from the 2012 round require them to be blocked from registration. At the beginning of 2019, the ICANN Board adopted the final recommendations of an extended PDP, which should enable them to be implemented. However, the body representing governments, the GAC, considered that not all the issues had been addressed, in particular that of specific protection for the acronyms of these organizations. This issue is still open today, and the recommendations have not yet been implemented.

Three women honoured at the Opening Ceremony

Monday marked the official launch of the summit, with the much-anticipated opening ceremony, which always takes place on a Monday morning. Tripti Sinha, Chair of the ICANN Board of Directors, recalled that the previous ICANN summit in San Juan took place “just after the devastating hurricane Maria”. She also referred to 2023, a year in which Sally Costerton took on the role of interim President of ICANN and in which ICANN celebrated its 25th anniversary in Hamburg. On the appointment of a new President for ICANN, participants were informed that the process is underway after listening to stakeholders in 2023. A group of candidates has emerged and will now lead to the selection of the future ICANN President and CEO. For her part, Sally Costerton repeatedly used the expression “superpower” to refer to ICANN’s mission to maintain a single global Internet. A difficult mission in a shifting geopolitical and technological context. But perhaps the most striking moment of the summit was the image of a third woman, Manal Ismail, who joined Tripti Sinha and Sally Costerton at the opening ceremony. Manal Ismail, who played an important role in the IANA transition and as chair of the GAC for more than five years, was honoured with the ICANN Community Excellence Award 2024.

Decisive milestones reached in 2023 which will materialize over the next three years

To the credit of ICANN’s current president, it must be said that many issues have moved forward under her leadership in 2023. If 2024 marks the entry into force of new obligations for registries and registrars on malicious uses, this is indeed the fruit of the work carried out last year. This central issue for Internet users had given rise to years of fruitless debates. The next round of new generic TLDs has made significant progress, with the adoption of recommendations and a roadmap towards a new application window now set for April 2026. We can add the Registration Data Policy, which will replace the Temporary Specification resulting from the GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) by 2025. A related issue is the future Standardized System for Access to registration Data, which has entered an experimental phase in an attempt to reconcile protection with the need to respond to real needs for access to registration data. The inclusive Internet is entitled to a dedicated international day following the launch of the first UA Day (Universal Acceptance Day) in 2023. Finally, “ICANN grant”, a programme aimed at financially supporting projects to unify and make the Internet more inclusive, has also been launched. It is based on the substantial amounts raised by the 2012 auctions of new generic extensions. An envelope of USD 10 million will be allocated at the end of March.

We’re not winning on all fronts

While progress has been made on a number of fronts, there has been little progress on others. This is the case with a new holistic review of ICANN and the review of the organisation’s Accountability and Transparency. These reviews are necessary to bring about improvements in security and consumer choice, in the services associated with domain name registration databases, and in the security, stability and resilience of the DNS. This important subject is impacted by the many projects currently underway, and ICANN has also embarked on a continuous improvement project that could replace these processes.

As far as the European directive on NIS2 cybersecurity is concerned, the main point to note is that the contracting parties and the ICANN Board of Directors have emphasised that this legislation does not conflict with the ICANN policies in place. For the Board, which has indicated that it is working with the European Commission on this subject, there are, however, issues such as data accuracy that need to be considered.

While ICANN79 was not the subject of any noteworthy announcements, the main thing to remember is the studious atmosphere after a pivotal year in which many subjects passed decisive milestones towards their implementation. This is the case for the next series of new generic extensions, the previous one having been introduced twelve years ago. If a form of agility seems to have won over ICANN under the leadership of Sally Costerton and Tripti Sinha, this approach is also that of Nameshield, which adapts to your needs to provide you with tailor-made answers on the new TLD projects and many others.

Image source: ICANN‘s website