At the ICANN83, currently taking place in Prague, a statement was made that raised significant concerns about the future of the next round of the new gTLD program. Susan Chalmers, representing the US government on the ICANN Governmental Advisory Committee (GAC), said that while the US was not opposed the next phase of the program in general, it was concerned about the uncontrolled expansion of the internet space.
In particular, Susan Chalmers noted that the US support for specific categories of applications, such as geographic and internationalized domain names, and acknowledged that, in some instances, introducing other new gTLDs to the DNS core zone may be warranted. However, she cautioned that excessive growth of the domain namespace could lead to an uptick in domain abuse, including spam and other domain abuse. Chalmers said that the US opposed excessive expansion and that ICANN should consider how to limit it appropriately to prevent domain abuse.
According to Domain Incite, the US was the only government to openly call for significantly restricting new gTLDs during an ICANN83 session. Chalmers’s concerns are not without reason: while applications will be submitted for both internationalized and geographic domains during the next phase of the program, it is quite obvious that the majority of applications, like in the first stage, will be related to commercial domains by definition. To delegate these domains, many registries may choose attracting new registrants with low costs, which will certainly be used by abusers.
The statement sparked considerable anxiety among participants, prompting speculation that the GAC might consider restricting the number of applications or even halting the second round altogether. In response to the growing unease, GAC Chair Nicolas Caballero had to announce publicly that GAC had no such plans.
Speaking about possible ways to counter this, the ICANN Governmental Advisory Committee can veto the delegation of a particular domain, but this requires a unanimous decision by all its members. A complete halt to the second round of the new gTLD program remains unlikely.
