Dear Netizen, ICANN86 Policy Forum officially kicked off yesterday, June 8, 2026, at the FIBES Conference and Exhibition Centre in Seville, Spain. As a dedicated Policy Forum, the atmosphere on Day One was focused, fast-paced, and highly technical, bypassing the usual ceremonial opening day fluff to dive straight into cross-community work, working group deliberations, and intense policy development. Here is a breakdown of the core themes, critical sessions, and operational highlights that shaped Day One. 1. The Operational Friction Points: DNS Abuse & Associated Domains The most heavily debated topic of Day One centered around DNS Abuse Mitigation and the newly launched Policy Development Process (PDP1). The discussions highlighted a widening operational divide between the security community and domain registrars. - The Crux of the Debate: Under the current Registrar Accreditation Agreement (amended in April 2024), registrars must investigate and take action on specific, evidence-backed abuse reports (phishing, malware, botnets, spam). However, Day One saw intense debate over a new proposal: Associated Domain Checks. - The Argument for Expansion: Security advocates and community members argued that malicious actors rarely register a single domain; they deploy dozens at scale using identical payment methods or registration patterns. Under PDP1, proponents want to mandate that when one domain is flagged, registrars must look at the entire account. - The Registrar Counter-Argument: Registrar representatives expressed deep concern over the operational burden and compliance unpredictability. Shifting from single-domain validation to account-wide investigations creates massive resource strain, especially given the flexible phrase "reasonably available information" used in the draft text, which registrars argue lacks a clear compliance baseline. 2. Plenary Spotlight: AI and the Scale of Abuse. The afternoon featured a critical cross-community plenary session: "The Current and Coming Impact of Artificial Intelligence on Domain Name System Abuse." This marks the first time AI's role in infrastructure abuse has been elevated to a primary plenary focus at an ICANN meeting. The Core Takeaway: ICANN’s historical contractual frameworks were built around human-operated abuse at human scale. The consensus in the room was that AI tools have fundamentally broken that model by enabling bad actors to automate bulk domain registrations, generate flawlessly localized phishing content, and clone malicious sites instantly. The community began mapping out how ICANN's multistakeholder model must evolve to counter machine-scale threats. 3. Supporting Organizations & Advisory Committees (SO/AC) in Motion Because the Policy Forum structure prioritizes deep-dive work, individual stakeholder groups hit the ground running: - GNSO (Generic Names Supporting Organization): Beyond the DNS Abuse PDP1 working sessions, the GNSO prioritized progress on the Latin Script Diacritics PDP WG (addressing how single registry operators handle ASCII vs. diacritic versions of a gTLD). Additionally, the SSAD (Standardized System for Access and Disclosure) Supplemental Recommendations Team followed up on their Day 0 marathon meeting to refine findings from the Registration Data Request System (RDRS). - GAC (Governmental Advisory Committee): The GAC spent Day One coordinating its priority tracks for the week. Government representatives focused heavily on preparation for the next round of the New gTLD Program, ensuring that applicant support mechanisms for underserved regions are operationally feasible. - ccNSO (Country Code Names Supporting Organization): Focused heavily on DNS resilience, holding regional updates and mapping out how global regulatory changes (like NIS2 in Europe and similar frameworks worldwide) are impacting local country-code registry operations. - ALAC (At-Large Advisory Committee): Maintained a heavy cross-community presence, bridging the gap between technical policy and end-user impacts, with a sharp focus on Universal Acceptance (UA) and multilingual digital inclusion. Looking Ahead to Day Two The momentum from Day One sets up a packed schedule for today. Expect ongoing gridlock-breaking discussions on the operational boundaries of Associated Domain Checks, further strategy sessions on the next round of New gTLDs, and joint bilateral meetings between Advisory Committees to find consensus on registration data access. Check out more news on ICANN News <https://info.icann.org/index.php/email/emailWebview?tkn_set=NTI5LUNSRS03MTcA...>.
Dear Dr Akinbo, Thank you so much for sharing. This session – "The Current and Coming Impact of Artificial Intelligence on Domain Name System Abuse". I plead with anyone that missed it to look for the recording and listen to it; it was very packed with value, and the attendance online and onsite was massive. After the session, I had an opportunity to draw the attention of one of ICANN's board members to how this growing concern really calls for more engagement and actions. Interestingly, earlier in the day (June 8th), Dr Houda and I had an opportunity to present on "Agentic AI's impact on DNS" at the ISPCP work session – this further buttresses the importance of this topic. Another session that stood out for me was the "*At-Large Plenary session on UA adoption as a policy imperative"*, and our own AFRALO Chair, Hadia, and Mutegeki brought great dynamics to the table with an experienced lineup of speakers and field feedback on executing Internationalised Domain Names (IDNs) and Email Address Internationalisation (EAI). Feedback from Ghana, Spain, UNESCO and Canada and the panellists' contributions were practical and forward-looking. Cheers to Day 2 of ICANN86 Policy Forum! Tinuade Oguntuyi ICANN 84& 86 Fellow On Tue, Jun 9, 2026 at 6:50 AM Adebunmi Akinbo via At-Large < at-large@icann.org> wrote:
Dear Netizen,
ICANN86 Policy Forum officially kicked off yesterday, June 8, 2026, at the FIBES Conference and Exhibition Centre in Seville, Spain. As a dedicated Policy Forum, the atmosphere on Day One was focused, fast-paced, and highly technical, bypassing the usual ceremonial opening day fluff to dive straight into cross-community work, working group deliberations, and intense policy development.
Here is a breakdown of the core themes, critical sessions, and operational highlights that shaped Day One.
1. The Operational Friction Points: DNS Abuse & Associated Domains
The most heavily debated topic of Day One centered around DNS Abuse Mitigation and the newly launched Policy Development Process (PDP1). The discussions highlighted a widening operational divide between the security community and domain registrars.
-
The Crux of the Debate: Under the current Registrar Accreditation Agreement (amended in April 2024), registrars must investigate and take action on specific, evidence-backed abuse reports (phishing, malware, botnets, spam). However, Day One saw intense debate over a new proposal: Associated Domain Checks. -
The Argument for Expansion: Security advocates and community members argued that malicious actors rarely register a single domain; they deploy dozens at scale using identical payment methods or registration patterns. Under PDP1, proponents want to mandate that when one domain is flagged, registrars must look at the entire account. -
The Registrar Counter-Argument: Registrar representatives expressed deep concern over the operational burden and compliance unpredictability. Shifting from single-domain validation to account-wide investigations creates massive resource strain, especially given the flexible phrase "reasonably available information" used in the draft text, which registrars argue lacks a clear compliance baseline.
2. Plenary Spotlight: AI and the Scale of Abuse.
The afternoon featured a critical cross-community plenary session: "The Current and Coming Impact of Artificial Intelligence on Domain Name System Abuse." This marks the first time AI's role in infrastructure abuse has been elevated to a primary plenary focus at an ICANN meeting.
The Core Takeaway: ICANN’s historical contractual frameworks were built around human-operated abuse at human scale. The consensus in the room was that AI tools have fundamentally broken that model by enabling bad actors to automate bulk domain registrations, generate flawlessly localized phishing content, and clone malicious sites instantly. The community began mapping out how ICANN's multistakeholder model must evolve to counter machine-scale threats.
3. Supporting Organizations & Advisory Committees (SO/AC) in Motion
Because the Policy Forum structure prioritizes deep-dive work, individual stakeholder groups hit the ground running:
-
GNSO (Generic Names Supporting Organization): Beyond the DNS Abuse PDP1 working sessions, the GNSO prioritized progress on the Latin Script Diacritics PDP WG (addressing how single registry operators handle ASCII vs. diacritic versions of a gTLD). Additionally, the SSAD (Standardized System for Access and Disclosure) Supplemental Recommendations Team followed up on their Day 0 marathon meeting to refine findings from the Registration Data Request System (RDRS). -
GAC (Governmental Advisory Committee): The GAC spent Day One coordinating its priority tracks for the week. Government representatives focused heavily on preparation for the next round of the New gTLD Program, ensuring that applicant support mechanisms for underserved regions are operationally feasible. -
ccNSO (Country Code Names Supporting Organization): Focused heavily on DNS resilience, holding regional updates and mapping out how global regulatory changes (like NIS2 in Europe and similar frameworks worldwide) are impacting local country-code registry operations. -
ALAC (At-Large Advisory Committee): Maintained a heavy cross-community presence, bridging the gap between technical policy and end-user impacts, with a sharp focus on Universal Acceptance (UA) and multilingual digital inclusion.
Looking Ahead to Day Two
The momentum from Day One sets up a packed schedule for today. Expect ongoing gridlock-breaking discussions on the operational boundaries of Associated Domain Checks, further strategy sessions on the next round of New gTLDs, and joint bilateral meetings between Advisory Committees to find consensus on registration data access.
Check out more news on ICANN News <https://info.icann.org/index.php/email/emailWebview?tkn_set=NTI5LUNSRS03MTcA...>.
_______________________________________________ At-Large mailing list -- at-large@icann.org To unsubscribe send an email to at-large-leave@icann.org
At-Large Official Site: http://atlarge.icann.org _______________________________________________ By submitting your personal data, you consent to the processing of your personal data for purposes of subscribing to this mailing list accordance with the ICANN Privacy Policy (https://www.icann.org/privacy/policy) and the website Terms of Service (https://www.icann.org/privacy/tos). You can visit the Mailman link above to change your membership status or configuration, including unsubscribing, setting digest-style delivery or disabling delivery altogether (e.g., for a vacation), and so on.
Dear Adebunmi, Tinuade, hi! Thank you so much for the great useful summary and emphasizing the importance of topics. Sincerely, Natalia Filina Secretary of EURALO https://atlarge.icann.org/alses/euralo IGF Dynamic Coalition on the Internet of Things, member DotDucky <https://dotducky.com/> owner 🐣 +7 906 722 54 61 Moscow, Russia вт, 9 июн. 2026 г. в 08:44, Tinuade Oguntuyi via At-Large < at-large@icann.org>:
Dear Dr Akinbo, Thank you so much for sharing.
This session – "The Current and Coming Impact of Artificial Intelligence on Domain Name System Abuse". I plead with anyone that missed it to look for the recording and listen to it; it was very packed with value, and the attendance online and onsite was massive. After the session, I had an opportunity to draw the attention of one of ICANN's board members to how this growing concern really calls for more engagement and actions.
Interestingly, earlier in the day (June 8th), Dr Houda and I had an opportunity to present on "Agentic AI's impact on DNS" at the ISPCP work session – this further buttresses the importance of this topic.
Another session that stood out for me was the "*At-Large Plenary session on UA adoption as a policy imperative"*, and our own AFRALO Chair, Hadia, and Mutegeki brought great dynamics to the table with an experienced lineup of speakers and field feedback on executing Internationalised Domain Names (IDNs) and Email Address Internationalisation (EAI). Feedback from Ghana, Spain, UNESCO and Canada and the panellists' contributions were practical and forward-looking.
Cheers to Day 2 of ICANN86 Policy Forum!
Tinuade Oguntuyi ICANN 84& 86 Fellow
On Tue, Jun 9, 2026 at 6:50 AM Adebunmi Akinbo via At-Large < at-large@icann.org> wrote:
Dear Netizen,
ICANN86 Policy Forum officially kicked off yesterday, June 8, 2026, at the FIBES Conference and Exhibition Centre in Seville, Spain. As a dedicated Policy Forum, the atmosphere on Day One was focused, fast-paced, and highly technical, bypassing the usual ceremonial opening day fluff to dive straight into cross-community work, working group deliberations, and intense policy development.
Here is a breakdown of the core themes, critical sessions, and operational highlights that shaped Day One.
1. The Operational Friction Points: DNS Abuse & Associated Domains
The most heavily debated topic of Day One centered around DNS Abuse Mitigation and the newly launched Policy Development Process (PDP1). The discussions highlighted a widening operational divide between the security community and domain registrars.
-
The Crux of the Debate: Under the current Registrar Accreditation Agreement (amended in April 2024), registrars must investigate and take action on specific, evidence-backed abuse reports (phishing, malware, botnets, spam). However, Day One saw intense debate over a new proposal: Associated Domain Checks. -
The Argument for Expansion: Security advocates and community members argued that malicious actors rarely register a single domain; they deploy dozens at scale using identical payment methods or registration patterns. Under PDP1, proponents want to mandate that when one domain is flagged, registrars must look at the entire account. -
The Registrar Counter-Argument: Registrar representatives expressed deep concern over the operational burden and compliance unpredictability. Shifting from single-domain validation to account-wide investigations creates massive resource strain, especially given the flexible phrase "reasonably available information" used in the draft text, which registrars argue lacks a clear compliance baseline.
2. Plenary Spotlight: AI and the Scale of Abuse.
The afternoon featured a critical cross-community plenary session: "The Current and Coming Impact of Artificial Intelligence on Domain Name System Abuse." This marks the first time AI's role in infrastructure abuse has been elevated to a primary plenary focus at an ICANN meeting.
The Core Takeaway: ICANN’s historical contractual frameworks were built around human-operated abuse at human scale. The consensus in the room was that AI tools have fundamentally broken that model by enabling bad actors to automate bulk domain registrations, generate flawlessly localized phishing content, and clone malicious sites instantly. The community began mapping out how ICANN's multistakeholder model must evolve to counter machine-scale threats.
3. Supporting Organizations & Advisory Committees (SO/AC) in Motion
Because the Policy Forum structure prioritizes deep-dive work, individual stakeholder groups hit the ground running:
-
GNSO (Generic Names Supporting Organization): Beyond the DNS Abuse PDP1 working sessions, the GNSO prioritized progress on the Latin Script Diacritics PDP WG (addressing how single registry operators handle ASCII vs. diacritic versions of a gTLD). Additionally, the SSAD (Standardized System for Access and Disclosure) Supplemental Recommendations Team followed up on their Day 0 marathon meeting to refine findings from the Registration Data Request System (RDRS). -
GAC (Governmental Advisory Committee): The GAC spent Day One coordinating its priority tracks for the week. Government representatives focused heavily on preparation for the next round of the New gTLD Program, ensuring that applicant support mechanisms for underserved regions are operationally feasible. -
ccNSO (Country Code Names Supporting Organization): Focused heavily on DNS resilience, holding regional updates and mapping out how global regulatory changes (like NIS2 in Europe and similar frameworks worldwide) are impacting local country-code registry operations. -
ALAC (At-Large Advisory Committee): Maintained a heavy cross-community presence, bridging the gap between technical policy and end-user impacts, with a sharp focus on Universal Acceptance (UA) and multilingual digital inclusion.
Looking Ahead to Day Two
The momentum from Day One sets up a packed schedule for today. Expect ongoing gridlock-breaking discussions on the operational boundaries of Associated Domain Checks, further strategy sessions on the next round of New gTLDs, and joint bilateral meetings between Advisory Committees to find consensus on registration data access.
Check out more news on ICANN News <https://info.icann.org/index.php/email/emailWebview?tkn_set=NTI5LUNSRS03MTcA...>.
_______________________________________________ At-Large mailing list -- at-large@icann.org To unsubscribe send an email to at-large-leave@icann.org
At-Large Official Site: http://atlarge.icann.org _______________________________________________ By submitting your personal data, you consent to the processing of your personal data for purposes of subscribing to this mailing list accordance with the ICANN Privacy Policy (https://www.icann.org/privacy/policy) and the website Terms of Service (https://www.icann.org/privacy/tos). You can visit the Mailman link above to change your membership status or configuration, including unsubscribing, setting digest-style delivery or disabling delivery altogether (e.g., for a vacation), and so on.
_______________________________________________ At-Large mailing list -- at-large@icann.org To unsubscribe send an email to at-large-leave@icann.org
At-Large Official Site: http://atlarge.icann.org _______________________________________________ By submitting your personal data, you consent to the processing of your personal data for purposes of subscribing to this mailing list accordance with the ICANN Privacy Policy (https://www.icann.org/privacy/policy) and the website Terms of Service (https://www.icann.org/privacy/tos). You can visit the Mailman link above to change your membership status or configuration, including unsubscribing, setting digest-style delivery or disabling delivery altogether (e.g., for a vacation), and so on.
Dear Tinuade, Thank you for the recap, the sessions have been throughly thought provoking. Gbemisola Esho On Tue, 9 Jun 2026, 08:21 Natalia Filina via At-Large, <at-large@icann.org> wrote:
Dear Adebunmi, Tinuade, hi! Thank you so much for the great useful summary and emphasizing the importance of topics.
Sincerely, Natalia Filina
Secretary of EURALO https://atlarge.icann.org/alses/euralo
IGF Dynamic Coalition on the Internet of Things, member
DotDucky <https://dotducky.com/> owner 🐣
+7 906 722 54 61 Moscow, Russia
вт, 9 июн. 2026 г. в 08:44, Tinuade Oguntuyi via At-Large < at-large@icann.org>:
Dear Dr Akinbo, Thank you so much for sharing.
This session – "The Current and Coming Impact of Artificial Intelligence on Domain Name System Abuse". I plead with anyone that missed it to look for the recording and listen to it; it was very packed with value, and the attendance online and onsite was massive. After the session, I had an opportunity to draw the attention of one of ICANN's board members to how this growing concern really calls for more engagement and actions.
Interestingly, earlier in the day (June 8th), Dr Houda and I had an opportunity to present on "Agentic AI's impact on DNS" at the ISPCP work session – this further buttresses the importance of this topic.
Another session that stood out for me was the "*At-Large Plenary session on UA adoption as a policy imperative"*, and our own AFRALO Chair, Hadia, and Mutegeki brought great dynamics to the table with an experienced lineup of speakers and field feedback on executing Internationalised Domain Names (IDNs) and Email Address Internationalisation (EAI). Feedback from Ghana, Spain, UNESCO and Canada and the panellists' contributions were practical and forward-looking.
Cheers to Day 2 of ICANN86 Policy Forum!
Tinuade Oguntuyi ICANN 84& 86 Fellow
On Tue, Jun 9, 2026 at 6:50 AM Adebunmi Akinbo via At-Large < at-large@icann.org> wrote:
Dear Netizen,
ICANN86 Policy Forum officially kicked off yesterday, June 8, 2026, at the FIBES Conference and Exhibition Centre in Seville, Spain. As a dedicated Policy Forum, the atmosphere on Day One was focused, fast-paced, and highly technical, bypassing the usual ceremonial opening day fluff to dive straight into cross-community work, working group deliberations, and intense policy development.
Here is a breakdown of the core themes, critical sessions, and operational highlights that shaped Day One.
1. The Operational Friction Points: DNS Abuse & Associated Domains
The most heavily debated topic of Day One centered around DNS Abuse Mitigation and the newly launched Policy Development Process (PDP1). The discussions highlighted a widening operational divide between the security community and domain registrars.
-
The Crux of the Debate: Under the current Registrar Accreditation Agreement (amended in April 2024), registrars must investigate and take action on specific, evidence-backed abuse reports (phishing, malware, botnets, spam). However, Day One saw intense debate over a new proposal: Associated Domain Checks. -
The Argument for Expansion: Security advocates and community members argued that malicious actors rarely register a single domain; they deploy dozens at scale using identical payment methods or registration patterns. Under PDP1, proponents want to mandate that when one domain is flagged, registrars must look at the entire account. -
The Registrar Counter-Argument: Registrar representatives expressed deep concern over the operational burden and compliance unpredictability. Shifting from single-domain validation to account-wide investigations creates massive resource strain, especially given the flexible phrase "reasonably available information" used in the draft text, which registrars argue lacks a clear compliance baseline.
2. Plenary Spotlight: AI and the Scale of Abuse.
The afternoon featured a critical cross-community plenary session: "The Current and Coming Impact of Artificial Intelligence on Domain Name System Abuse." This marks the first time AI's role in infrastructure abuse has been elevated to a primary plenary focus at an ICANN meeting.
The Core Takeaway: ICANN’s historical contractual frameworks were built around human-operated abuse at human scale. The consensus in the room was that AI tools have fundamentally broken that model by enabling bad actors to automate bulk domain registrations, generate flawlessly localized phishing content, and clone malicious sites instantly. The community began mapping out how ICANN's multistakeholder model must evolve to counter machine-scale threats.
3. Supporting Organizations & Advisory Committees (SO/AC) in Motion
Because the Policy Forum structure prioritizes deep-dive work, individual stakeholder groups hit the ground running:
-
GNSO (Generic Names Supporting Organization): Beyond the DNS Abuse PDP1 working sessions, the GNSO prioritized progress on the Latin Script Diacritics PDP WG (addressing how single registry operators handle ASCII vs. diacritic versions of a gTLD). Additionally, the SSAD (Standardized System for Access and Disclosure) Supplemental Recommendations Team followed up on their Day 0 marathon meeting to refine findings from the Registration Data Request System (RDRS). -
GAC (Governmental Advisory Committee): The GAC spent Day One coordinating its priority tracks for the week. Government representatives focused heavily on preparation for the next round of the New gTLD Program, ensuring that applicant support mechanisms for underserved regions are operationally feasible. -
ccNSO (Country Code Names Supporting Organization): Focused heavily on DNS resilience, holding regional updates and mapping out how global regulatory changes (like NIS2 in Europe and similar frameworks worldwide) are impacting local country-code registry operations. -
ALAC (At-Large Advisory Committee): Maintained a heavy cross-community presence, bridging the gap between technical policy and end-user impacts, with a sharp focus on Universal Acceptance (UA) and multilingual digital inclusion.
Looking Ahead to Day Two
The momentum from Day One sets up a packed schedule for today. Expect ongoing gridlock-breaking discussions on the operational boundaries of Associated Domain Checks, further strategy sessions on the next round of New gTLDs, and joint bilateral meetings between Advisory Committees to find consensus on registration data access.
Check out more news on ICANN News <https://info.icann.org/index.php/email/emailWebview?tkn_set=NTI5LUNSRS03MTcA...>.
_______________________________________________ At-Large mailing list -- at-large@icann.org To unsubscribe send an email to at-large-leave@icann.org
At-Large Official Site: http://atlarge.icann.org _______________________________________________ By submitting your personal data, you consent to the processing of your personal data for purposes of subscribing to this mailing list accordance with the ICANN Privacy Policy (https://www.icann.org/privacy/policy) and the website Terms of Service (https://www.icann.org/privacy/tos). You can visit the Mailman link above to change your membership status or configuration, including unsubscribing, setting digest-style delivery or disabling delivery altogether (e.g., for a vacation), and so on.
_______________________________________________ At-Large mailing list -- at-large@icann.org To unsubscribe send an email to at-large-leave@icann.org
At-Large Official Site: http://atlarge.icann.org _______________________________________________ By submitting your personal data, you consent to the processing of your personal data for purposes of subscribing to this mailing list accordance with the ICANN Privacy Policy (https://www.icann.org/privacy/policy) and the website Terms of Service (https://www.icann.org/privacy/tos). You can visit the Mailman link above to change your membership status or configuration, including unsubscribing, setting digest-style delivery or disabling delivery altogether (e.g., for a vacation), and so on.
_______________________________________________ At-Large mailing list -- at-large@icann.org To unsubscribe send an email to at-large-leave@icann.org
At-Large Official Site: http://atlarge.icann.org _______________________________________________ By submitting your personal data, you consent to the processing of your personal data for purposes of subscribing to this mailing list accordance with the ICANN Privacy Policy (https://www.icann.org/privacy/policy) and the website Terms of Service (https://www.icann.org/privacy/tos). You can visit the Mailman link above to change your membership status or configuration, including unsubscribing, setting digest-style delivery or disabling delivery altogether (e.g., for a vacation), and so on.
Dear Dr Akinbo Thank you for your detailed recap of Day One. Regarding the debate on Associated Domain Checks, my perspective is that while the operational burden on registrars is a valid concern, the definition of what constitutes "malicious" behavior must be clearly established to make these investigations effective. That said, I agree that these sessions are much needed as we navigate the complexities of DNS abuse and machine-scale threats. Best regards, Gbemisola Esho On Tue, 9 Jun 2026, 08:35 Gbemisola Esho, <gbemiadepojuesho@gmail.com> wrote:
Dear Tinuade, Thank you for the recap, the sessions have been throughly thought provoking.
Gbemisola Esho
On Tue, 9 Jun 2026, 08:21 Natalia Filina via At-Large, <at-large@icann.org> wrote:
Dear Adebunmi, Tinuade, hi! Thank you so much for the great useful summary and emphasizing the importance of topics.
Sincerely, Natalia Filina
Secretary of EURALO https://atlarge.icann.org/alses/euralo
IGF Dynamic Coalition on the Internet of Things, member
DotDucky <https://dotducky.com/> owner 🐣
+7 906 722 54 61 Moscow, Russia
вт, 9 июн. 2026 г. в 08:44, Tinuade Oguntuyi via At-Large < at-large@icann.org>:
Dear Dr Akinbo, Thank you so much for sharing.
This session – "The Current and Coming Impact of Artificial Intelligence on Domain Name System Abuse". I plead with anyone that missed it to look for the recording and listen to it; it was very packed with value, and the attendance online and onsite was massive. After the session, I had an opportunity to draw the attention of one of ICANN's board members to how this growing concern really calls for more engagement and actions.
Interestingly, earlier in the day (June 8th), Dr Houda and I had an opportunity to present on "Agentic AI's impact on DNS" at the ISPCP work session – this further buttresses the importance of this topic.
Another session that stood out for me was the "*At-Large Plenary session on UA adoption as a policy imperative"*, and our own AFRALO Chair, Hadia, and Mutegeki brought great dynamics to the table with an experienced lineup of speakers and field feedback on executing Internationalised Domain Names (IDNs) and Email Address Internationalisation (EAI). Feedback from Ghana, Spain, UNESCO and Canada and the panellists' contributions were practical and forward-looking.
Cheers to Day 2 of ICANN86 Policy Forum!
Tinuade Oguntuyi ICANN 84& 86 Fellow
On Tue, Jun 9, 2026 at 6:50 AM Adebunmi Akinbo via At-Large < at-large@icann.org> wrote:
Dear Netizen,
ICANN86 Policy Forum officially kicked off yesterday, June 8, 2026, at the FIBES Conference and Exhibition Centre in Seville, Spain. As a dedicated Policy Forum, the atmosphere on Day One was focused, fast-paced, and highly technical, bypassing the usual ceremonial opening day fluff to dive straight into cross-community work, working group deliberations, and intense policy development.
Here is a breakdown of the core themes, critical sessions, and operational highlights that shaped Day One.
1. The Operational Friction Points: DNS Abuse & Associated Domains
The most heavily debated topic of Day One centered around DNS Abuse Mitigation and the newly launched Policy Development Process (PDP1). The discussions highlighted a widening operational divide between the security community and domain registrars.
-
The Crux of the Debate: Under the current Registrar Accreditation Agreement (amended in April 2024), registrars must investigate and take action on specific, evidence-backed abuse reports (phishing, malware, botnets, spam). However, Day One saw intense debate over a new proposal: Associated Domain Checks. -
The Argument for Expansion: Security advocates and community members argued that malicious actors rarely register a single domain; they deploy dozens at scale using identical payment methods or registration patterns. Under PDP1, proponents want to mandate that when one domain is flagged, registrars must look at the entire account. -
The Registrar Counter-Argument: Registrar representatives expressed deep concern over the operational burden and compliance unpredictability. Shifting from single-domain validation to account-wide investigations creates massive resource strain, especially given the flexible phrase "reasonably available information" used in the draft text, which registrars argue lacks a clear compliance baseline.
2. Plenary Spotlight: AI and the Scale of Abuse.
The afternoon featured a critical cross-community plenary session: "The Current and Coming Impact of Artificial Intelligence on Domain Name System Abuse." This marks the first time AI's role in infrastructure abuse has been elevated to a primary plenary focus at an ICANN meeting.
The Core Takeaway: ICANN’s historical contractual frameworks were built around human-operated abuse at human scale. The consensus in the room was that AI tools have fundamentally broken that model by enabling bad actors to automate bulk domain registrations, generate flawlessly localized phishing content, and clone malicious sites instantly. The community began mapping out how ICANN's multistakeholder model must evolve to counter machine-scale threats.
3. Supporting Organizations & Advisory Committees (SO/AC) in Motion
Because the Policy Forum structure prioritizes deep-dive work, individual stakeholder groups hit the ground running:
-
GNSO (Generic Names Supporting Organization): Beyond the DNS Abuse PDP1 working sessions, the GNSO prioritized progress on the Latin Script Diacritics PDP WG (addressing how single registry operators handle ASCII vs. diacritic versions of a gTLD). Additionally, the SSAD (Standardized System for Access and Disclosure) Supplemental Recommendations Team followed up on their Day 0 marathon meeting to refine findings from the Registration Data Request System (RDRS). -
GAC (Governmental Advisory Committee): The GAC spent Day One coordinating its priority tracks for the week. Government representatives focused heavily on preparation for the next round of the New gTLD Program, ensuring that applicant support mechanisms for underserved regions are operationally feasible. -
ccNSO (Country Code Names Supporting Organization): Focused heavily on DNS resilience, holding regional updates and mapping out how global regulatory changes (like NIS2 in Europe and similar frameworks worldwide) are impacting local country-code registry operations. -
ALAC (At-Large Advisory Committee): Maintained a heavy cross-community presence, bridging the gap between technical policy and end-user impacts, with a sharp focus on Universal Acceptance (UA) and multilingual digital inclusion.
Looking Ahead to Day Two
The momentum from Day One sets up a packed schedule for today. Expect ongoing gridlock-breaking discussions on the operational boundaries of Associated Domain Checks, further strategy sessions on the next round of New gTLDs, and joint bilateral meetings between Advisory Committees to find consensus on registration data access.
Check out more news on ICANN News <https://info.icann.org/index.php/email/emailWebview?tkn_set=NTI5LUNSRS03MTcA...>.
_______________________________________________ At-Large mailing list -- at-large@icann.org To unsubscribe send an email to at-large-leave@icann.org
At-Large Official Site: http://atlarge.icann.org _______________________________________________ By submitting your personal data, you consent to the processing of your personal data for purposes of subscribing to this mailing list accordance with the ICANN Privacy Policy (https://www.icann.org/privacy/policy) and the website Terms of Service (https://www.icann.org/privacy/tos). You can visit the Mailman link above to change your membership status or configuration, including unsubscribing, setting digest-style delivery or disabling delivery altogether (e.g., for a vacation), and so on.
_______________________________________________ At-Large mailing list -- at-large@icann.org To unsubscribe send an email to at-large-leave@icann.org
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At-Large Official Site: http://atlarge.icann.org _______________________________________________ By submitting your personal data, you consent to the processing of your personal data for purposes of subscribing to this mailing list accordance with the ICANN Privacy Policy (https://www.icann.org/privacy/policy) and the website Terms of Service (https://www.icann.org/privacy/tos). You can visit the Mailman link above to change your membership status or configuration, including unsubscribing, setting digest-style delivery or disabling delivery altogether (e.g., for a vacation), and so on.
participants (4)
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Adebunmi Akinbo -
Gbemisola Esho -
Natalia Filina -
Tinuade Oguntuyi