Recent Posts
- Response to sex harassment lawsuit “inadequate”, say ICANN vets
- Unstoppable tops four million names
- Amazon readying fashion and book gTLDs
- Five times ICANN deleted a ccTLD, and what it means for .io
- Future of .io domains uncertain as UK hands over Chagos islands
- .ai now has over half a million names
- UK and Israel cut ICANN funding
- Twitter now up-to-date on linkification
- Moment of truth as .music domains finally go on sale
- ICANN fixes embarrassing “What is a Domain Name?” mistake
- Another ccTLD opens up its second level
- Reporter gains first access to .io island for decades
- .io sells $40 million of domains after massive uptick
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- New .com contract could see ALL domain prices go up
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- ICANN confirms new gTLD application fee
- New gTLD application fee rises by thousands after collision call
- Former .co registry defeated in $350 million contract fix case
- Is this the first Next Round new gTLD contention battle?
- ICANN names its Supreme Court judges
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- All the one-character .sk domains to be auctioned
- Straggler gTLD signs first ICANN contract for years
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- Tonkin promoted to CEO at auDA
- ICANN hires new Ombuds from WIPO
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- The new gTLD next, next and next round
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- Russia calls for ICANN to split from US
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- ICANN homes in on new gTLD application fee
- Four more dot-brands switch back-ends
- Uzbekistan gets its first ICANN registrar
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- Two out, two in as NomCom picks new ICANN directors
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- ICANN swaps out Asia VP
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- Private auctions to be banned in next new gTLD round
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- First registry gets breach notice over new abuse rules
- Americans and ICANNers avoid Kigali in droves
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- Unstoppable Domains goes down after domain hijack
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- Unstoppable announces another new gTLD bid
- Blockchain naming firm gets ICANN accreditation
- ICANN takes over gTLD after Whois failures
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- Secret new gTLD application revealed
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- Outrage over ICANN’s new gTLD fees
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- The people have spoken on RDRS and they said “Meh”
- ICANN restarts work on controversial Whois privacy rules
- GNSO mulls lawyering up over auction fund dispute
- Jury still out on ICANN’s content policing powers
- It now takes TWO WEEKS to get a Whois record with RDRS
- Travel expenses push ICANN into the red again
- ICANN preparing for ONE HUNDRED registry back-ends
- DNS Abuse Institute changes name
- A new way to game the new gTLD program
- .home, .mail and .corp could get unbanned
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Russia calls for ICANN to split from US
The Russian government has called on ICANN to further distance itself from US legal jurisdiction, complaining that the current war-related sanctions could prevent its companies from applying for new gTLDs.
In recent comments, Russia said that “no single state or group of states should have the right to interfere in the operation of critical Internet infrastructure and/or the activities of ICANN, including the mechanisms for legal regulation of ICANN’s operations”.
It added that it is “necessary… to prepare by the ICANN community and stakeholders proposals for measures or mechanisms that can make ICANN less dependent on one state”.
The call came in comments filed in ICANN’s public comment period on the terms and conditions of the new gTLD program’s Applicant Support Program and Registry Service Provider Evaluation Program.
The Ts&Cs contain a clause requiring applicants to abide by all US economic sanctions, such as those overseen by the Office of Foreign Assets Control, which has sanctioned Russian entities since the 2022 invasion of Ukraine.
Russia’s comment was filed late and has not been published or analysed by ICANN in the usual way. Instead, it was appended to the summary report (pdf) prepared by ICANN staff.
It’s not the only war-related beef Russia has with ICANN right now. The government has also complained (pdf) that about 400 domains registered by Russian entities, including airports and airlines, in the .aero gTLD have been suspended.
The .aero registry, aerospace industry IT service provider SITA, is headquartered in Switzerland but the contracting entity is a US-based subsidiary.
According to OFAC, domain registration services are exempt from the US sanctions. That has not stopped several domain registries and registrars ceasing business with Russians on moral grounds.
ICANN told Russia to file a complaint about SITA with its Compliance department. SITA has not yet responded to a request for comment.
Calls for ICANN to distance itself from the US have been coming for over two decades, usually from America’s opponents, and did not stop when the Org severed its formal ties with the 2016 IANA transition.
What is ICANN waiting for to 🦵 terrorist state russia from using domains. Congratulations to .aero for the good job. Time for .com to do the same.
There is another simpler way this issue can be resolved.
ICANN could engage with OFAC to explicitly clarify whether domain names in general are subject to sanctions or exempt.
It should be noted the .AERO SITA Registry action that was announced in November, 2023 impacted other sanctioned countries as well.
Recent 2024 updates from OFAC regarding domain names being exempt have been piece-meal at best:
https://ofac.treasury.gov/faqs/785 (CUBA) updated May 28, 2024
and
https://ofac.treasury.gov/faqs/1185 (RUSSIA) June 12, 2024
Ideally not only OFAC, but also other organizations, such as the EU…
I think ICANN has an important role to fill in lobbying for a unified and open internet and could demonstrate how sanctions can hurt that goal. Finally our fees would be put to good use.
ICANN will always have to be incorporated in one jurisdiction or another; but if some jurisdiction offers immunity for policy decisions, like the US has for ISO, and the US does not offer it to ICANN, moving to that jurisdiction could be useful.
What Russia forgot to mention is that it is almost impossible to find even notoriously neutral jurisdictions not sanctioning Russia nowadays.
Besides that, ICANN has stated that it would try to secure OFAC licenses for individuals/organizations from sanctioned jurisdictions, provided the individual/organization is not nominatively sanctioned.
So while Vladimir Putin wouldn’t be able to apply, it’s not a given that a Russian wouldn’t. But even if ICANN and OFAC agree and let an application move forward, moving money to pay for it would be a gigantic challenge.
OR, … – and hear me out on this, …
OR, Russia could just call this entire misadventure off and pull back behind its 2013 borders and beg the international community to lift those sanctions.
Otherwise: “No TLDs for you!”
If someone really wants to really cripple the Russian air travel industry, then *require* them to use .aero domains.