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ICANN
ICANN governance intelligence tracks institutions, policy processes, standards activity, registry operations, accountability disputes, and implementation signals that affect internet infrastructure. BTW.
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Structural policy changes usually materialize in 120d+ cycles.
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Latest from ICANN
279 articles
ICANN
Who Controls the .jp Registry? The Instrument Chain Above JPRS
Japan Registry Services Co., Ltd. (JPRS) sits at the center of a layered control surface for the .jp country-code top-level domain: IANA and ICANN grant its international authority, JPNIC and Japan's government can challenge it, and a 2025–2026 evaluation cycle plus a second…
ICANN
Challenging a .jp Registration Just Got Easier: What the 2026 JP-DRP Rules Revision Actually Changed
Japan's procedure for disputing ownership of a .jp domain name was quietly modernised this spring — but its most consequential limits were left exactly where they were.
ICANN
The Root-Server Governance Model Has a Comparison Problem, Not an Adoption Date
The ICANN Board Chair has acknowledged unresolved differences between a proposed root-server governance structure and the advisory criteria meant to test it. The public account identifies the comparison but leaves its disputed rows unnamed.
ICANN
ICANN90 Has a Host. That Is Not a Transfer of Policy Authority
The Adelaide announcement identifies who will help put on ICANN's 2027 annual meeting. The useful governance question is where that practical role ends—and who remains accountable for the meeting and its decisions.
ICANN
Netpia's Cure Has Two Access Doors That a Payment Cannot Open
ICANN's new notice is formally anchored in unpaid accreditation fees. Its reader-facing significance lies elsewhere too: the public lookup and the route to request nonpublic data need separate evidence that they work.
ICANN
ICANN Can Declare Its Own Breach. The Remedy Still Needs Someone Else to Act.
A finding of breach is binding. The repair is only a recommendation. The .WEB record and one terminated community petition show where ICANN's accountability stops being automatic.
ICANN
Ghana’s DNSSEC Rate and Nigeria’s Signed Zone Are Different Kinds of Progress
ICANN’s latest account of African DNS security puts mobile-network resolvers beside a country-code registry. The gains are real but belong to different operators and measure different parts of a secure lookup.
ICANN
A DNS-Abuse Check Meets the Boundary Between Sister Registrars
A new public comment asks ICANN to look past a registrar's individual accreditation when the same company controls another registrar. The question is not whether every domain sharing an attribute is suspect; it is which institution must investigate an evidenced campaign when a…
ICANN
When a Rejection Action Expires: the ASO, ICANN's FY27 Plans and the Limits of an Empowered Community Check
Two attempts to use the Empowered Community's rejection power against decisions of the ICANN Board were opened and closed in 2026, and neither reached a vote. One concerned money: the ICANN FY27–31 Operating and Financial Plan, the ICANN FY27 Operating Plan and Budget and the…
ICANN
Who Can Stop a New gTLD Application, and What an Applicant Can Actually Win
ICANN can refuse, defer or condition a new generic top-level domain application — but the two remedies an unsuccessful applicant can pursue do not hand it the string. One returns the question to the same Board. The other produces a declaration about whether the Board kept to its…
ICANN
ICANN's Email-Acceptance Survey Changed Who Could Be Counted
The latest Universal Acceptance report records a higher rate for websites that accept internationalized email addresses. But its 2026 test reached a different set of sites by a different method. Before that rate becomes a progress claim, the missing comparison must be made…
ICANN
4.3 Million IDNs Are a Registration Count, Not a Universal Acceptance Result
A name can exist in the DNS, appear in a registry total and still be rejected by the first sign-up form that asks for its email address. ICANN’s new annual report makes both sides visible: multilingual identifiers are widely available, while the software path that must use them…
ICANN
GNSO approved the 2026 CSC slate. It did not choose eight of its nine names
One Council decision confirmed a nine-person slate for the committee that watches PTI’s delivery of the IANA naming function. The same decision record shows why confirmation must not be mistaken for the source of appointment.
ICANN
ICANN Mapped AFRALO’s Requests Without Adopting Them
The most important phrase in the AFRALO-AfrICANN submission is not in the Board Chair’s reply. It is in the cover note: the statement was sent to the ICANN Board “for information purposes.” Six pages of recommendations then met a two-page response that acknowledged the problem…
ICANN
ICANN's 15-Day Verification Dialogue Became a Briefing. The Binding Route Is Still Unchosen
The most revealing part of ICANN's latest exchange about domain-registration accuracy is not whether contact checks should happen before a name resolves. It is what happened to the meeting meant to discuss that question: a proposed webinar and trilateral dialogue became an…
ICANN
A GNSO Agreement Is Not Yet a Rule
The GNSO Council’s January strategy report reached the public record in September, after several of its own time windows had passed. Reading it responsibly means separating what entities observed, what they agreed, what someone was assigned to do, what had a target date, and what…
ICANN
The autistici.org Hold Has a Timestamp but No Public Decision Receipt
PIR’s RDAP service records exactly when `autistici.org` changed and which registry controls remain applied. It cannot tell the public who connected a US sanctions designation to that domain-wide action, which rule governed the choice, why it happened before a wind-down licence…
ICANN
ALAC Is Changing Its ECA Representative. The Authority Must Still Come From ALAC
A one-page letter names Claire C. Craig as Jonathan Zuck’s future successor in two connected roles: ALAC Chair and ALAC representative on the Empowered Community Administration. The personnel change is clear. The harder governance question begins after it: when that…
ICANN
Two Councils Adopted the 2016 CCWG Framework. That Did Not Make It ICANN-Wide
An ICANN org record check has turned a familiar governance document into a narrower instrument. The 2016 framework for future cross-community working groups was formally adopted by the GNSO and ccNSO, but no record was found of adoption or endorsement by the other Supporting…
ICANN
ICANN’s Authority Is Layered—and So Are Its Remedies
ICANN does not exercise one undifferentiated kind of power. Its authority is assembled from corporate instruments, Bylaws, policy procedures and private contracts; the route for challenging an action depends on which layer produced it.
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