On April 16, Chisinau hosted Universal Acceptance Day as part of the Moldovan Internet Governance Forum, MIGF 2025. The event dedicated to the universal acceptance of all valid domain names and email addresses was held in Moldova for the first time, organized with the support of the Regional Coordination Group on Universal Acceptance of the CIS and Eastern Europe.
The participants discussed prospects for a multilingual internet, strategies to increase digital inclusion, as well as current and future opportunities for the use of national languages in internet identifiers.
The keynote speech, The Future of Digital Inclusion: Why Universal Acceptance Matters, was delivered by Maria Kolesnikova, Chief Analyst of the Coordination Center for TLD .RU/.РФ and Chair of the Regional Coordination Group on Universal Acceptance. She underscored that universal acceptance is an important aspect of digital inclusion and the key to achieving a truly multilingual internet.
“Multilingual internet is no longer futurity, it’s a reality. This important principle is also enshrined in the main documents that define the further development of the global network. Digital inclusion also means that everyone should have equal opportunities to connect to and enjoy all the benefits of the internet, regardless of the language they speak. To achieve this, all modern software products and online services must accommodate user language preferences and be ready to validate and process all domain names and email addresses that include characters from different national alphabets,” Maria Kolesnikova said.
She gave an overview of the use of national languages online, highlighted the key challenges to the implementation of Universal Acceptance and presented global and regional initiatives to address them. These initiatives include the activities of the Regional Coordination Group on UA and the Coordination Center’s project Поддерживаю.РФ (I support .РФ), which develops best practices and training materials for software developers and system administrators.
The Regional Coordination Group on Universal Acceptance of the CIS and Eastern European Countries includes representatives of Internationalized Top-Level Domain (IDN) registries, registrars and independent experts from Azerbaijan, Armenia, Belarus, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Russia and Serbia. The group focuses on the universal acceptance of IDNs, new top-level domains and email addresses that contain non-Latin script (EAI).
