March 21 marks the conclusion of the public comment period initiated by ICANN to consider the potential inclusion of the top-level domain .INTERNAL in the DNS root zone. ICANN had previously raised concerns that delegating this domain could pose serious risks due to its widespread use within the internal networks of many large companies, and its appearance as a top-level domain potentially resulting in technical errors and data breaches.
So far, ICANN’s proposal has garnered approximately 30 comments, as reported by Domain Incite. The majority of these comments express support for the idea of prohibiting the delegation of the .INTERNAL domain. Notably, prominent technology giants such as Google and Amazon have expressed opposition to delegating it. Both companies noted their extensive use of the domain within their internal networks (particularly at Google for cloud services), expressing concerns about the potential repercussions of establishing it as a gTLD.
However, some commentators have taken a different stance. They have pointed out that ICANN had previously prohibited the delegation of domains such as .CORP or .HOME due to similar concerns regarding technical errors and name conflicts with addresses on internal networks. In light of this, large companies could opt to use these domains in their networks instead of .INTERNAL. Despite the fact that ICANN does not always consider public opinion, there is a sense that public sentiment, especially from influential technology companies, will carry weight in this instance. It would be unwise to disregard the opinions of these industry leaders and risk damaging relations with them.
