News

The topic of registration data accuracy is picking up again at ICANN. Be it due to the fact that the EU is negotiating the NIS 2 Directive and the corresponding registration data verification obligation put on registries and registrars. Or that data accuracy keeps coming up in the ongoing GDPR compliance discussions by ICANN contracted parties (e.g. gTLD registries and registrars) after more than three years of law enforcement authorities and rights holders claiming not to be able to investigate illegal activities online due to the “darkened WHOIS”. One thing is sure: the data accuracy discussion underpins many current cross-community issues at ICANN, including ‘DNS abuse’, contractual compliance and public interest concerns.

The DNS Abuse topic was omnipresent at ICANN 72. Webinars in prep week (At-Large Advisory Committee and ICANN Board workshops) set the stage and the tone for intense but overall balanced discussions.

In this post I am trying to capture the main lines of thought and initiatives that came out of what must have been 15 hours of meetings and as many hours of zoom chats.

Until a few years ago, one needed to climb an impossibly steep learning curve when engaging in the country code Names Supporting Organisation (ccNSO).

These days, thanks to the excellent work of the secretariat, it is much easier to join the discussions. There are now good prep materials, live note-taking and perfectly supported online meetings and recordings. All the information we need is at our fingertips.

At the end of 2020, the European Commission came up with a proposal to revise EU cybersecurity legislation, following the allegedly increased cyberthreats due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The NIS 2 Directive proposal aims to improve the resilience and incident response capacities of public and private entities, deemed to be critical infrastructures. These entities also include domain name registries, registrars, DNS service providers and root servers operators.

In a nutshell: Ursula von der Leyen delivered her speech on the State of the Union. Denmark and Germany’s ministers called for stricter rules in the Digital Services Act (DSA), while EEA EFTA states called for more balance with freedom of expression. JURI and ITRE adopted their opinions on the DSA. The Slovenian Presidency circulated its proposal for a compromise text on the DSA. Potential areas for consensus were debated in trilogues regarding the e-Evidence proposal. The Netherlands released a non-paper on the Data Act ahead of the EU proposal expected in December.

The CENTRstats Global TLD Report Q2/2021 has been published. It covers the global status and registration trends in all top-level domains (legacy gTLDs, new gTLDs and ccTLDs), with a specific focus on the European ccTLD market.

General Manager, Peter Van Roste, shares some insights into CENTR’s strategic planning process and touches on some of the changes coming in the next few years.

In a nutshell: Slovenia took over the Presidency of the Council of the EU. The European Parliament adopted a temporary ePrivacy derogation to detect and remove child abuse. The NIS2 and CER Directives, as well as the DSA Regulation proposals advanced through the European Parliamentary discussions. The Council of the EU published its conclusions on intellectual property policy. The European Data Protection Board adopted guidelines on the concepts of controller and processor. ENISA published a report stating that supply chain cyberattacks are expected to quadruple in 2021.

The CENTRstats Global TLD Report Q1/2021 has been published. It covers the global status and registration trends in all top-level domains (legacy gTLDs, new gTLDs and ccTLDs), with a specific focus on the European ccTLD market.