ICANN 79

Event
Process	ICANN
Date	Mar. 2, 2024 – Mar. 7, 2024
Region	NA
Country	Puerto Rico
City	San Juan
Venue	Puerto Rico Convention Center
Websites	meetings.icann.org/en/meetings/icann79
← ICANN 78 ICANN 80 →

ICANN 79 was held in San Juan, Puerto Rico from March 2 to 7, 2024, as the first ICANN Public Meeting of 2024 and a Community Forum in ICANN’s three-meeting annual cycle. Hosted by nic.pr, the meeting combined regional outreach and capacity building with advancing work on the New gTLD Program: Next Round, Internationalized Domain Names (IDNs), registration data disclosure and accuracy, DNS Abuse mitigation, and the ICANN Grant Program. It also featured Board decisions to update technical and governance charters and to define funding parameters for the first ICANN Grant Program cycle.

Meeting Information

ICANN 79 took place over six days at the Puerto Rico Convention Center, with Prep Week held online from February 20 to 22, 2024. ICANN described the meeting as focused on outreach, capacity building, and showcasing ICANN’s work to a broader global audience, reflecting the Community Forum format.

The meeting agenda featured cross-community sessions on Public Interest Commitments (PICs) and Registry Voluntary Commitments (RVCs), Board engagement with the community on strategic priorities, and extensive joint meetings between the Board and Supporting Organizations/Advisory Committees (SO/ACs). For governments, ICANN 79 directly preceded the High Level Government Meeting (HLGM) held before ICANN 80, and the GAC used part of its time in San Juan to finalize the HLGM agenda and prepare national participation.

New gTLD Program: Next Round

PICs, RVCs and Implementation Framing

A dedicated consultation on PICs and RVCs presented the community with a synthesis of Public Comment input on the proposed framework for handling mandatory PICs and voluntary RVCs in the new gTLD Program: Next Round. The report highlighted two broad positions: participants who saw value in stronger, more standardized mechanisms for formulating and enforcing PICs/RVCs, and those who warned against creating new obligations or compliance expectations that could go beyond the policy basis of the 2012 round recommendations. Discussions focused on the appropriate role of ICANN org and the Board in interpreting voluntarily-offered RVCs, the relationship between PICs/RVCs and DNS Abuse obligations, and how to avoid deterring beneficial strings while still enabling meaningful safeguards.

In a joint session between the ICANN Board and the GNSO Council, councilors raised concerns that recent disagreements over pending policy recommendations, including from the New gTLD Subsequent Procedures (SubPro) PDP, had reflected poorly on the GNSO and ICANN more broadly. The GNSO Council proposed more structured, early engagement with the Board and ICANN org on feasibility and implementation issues, particularly via the Operational Design Phase (ODP), to reduce the likelihood of last-minute divergence on recommendations that are otherwise considered “stable”.

The Board, for its part, indicated general alignment with GAC advice to disincentivize private auctions in string contention resolution and signaled interest in approaches that promote good faith in joint ventures and contention set resolution mechanisms in the Next Round of gTLDs.

Applicant Support Program and Cost–Benefit Analysis

The ALAC and At-Large community held a policy session dedicated to the draft Applicant Support Program Handbook for the New gTLD Program: Next Round and its associated Public Comment questions. End-user representatives examined whether the draft criteria and processes would meaningfully lower barriers for applicants from underserved regions and communities, and how non-financial support (e.g. administrative and technical assistance) could complement fee reductions.

The GAC and ALAC held a joint session on the Applicant Support Program that fed directly into GAC advice. In its ICANN 79 Communiqué, the GAC issued Consensus Advice on the program, calling on the ICANN Board to ensure that applicant support is sufficiently funded, globally promoted through a comprehensive outreach and communications plan, and broadened to include technical, administrative and procedural support, not only reduced application fees.

In a separate joint session with the Board, the GAC pressed for clarity on both the resources earmarked for Applicant Support and the communications strategy for raising awareness among potential applicants. The Board confirmed that applicant support was a high priority and noted ongoing work on the handbook and regional engagement, while acknowledging the GAC’s insistence on robust non-financial support and progress tracking mechanisms.

The same GAC–Board discussion addressed the cost–benefit analysis of the Next Round. GAC representatives questioned whether the high-level economic assessment published by ICANN was sufficient, while the Board reiterated its conclusion that there was no economic basis to justify halting the Next Round and that additional global economic studies were unlikely to be more informative, emphasizing the positive expected impact as an output of community policy work.

Internationalized Domain Names

ccPDP4 on IDN ccTLD (de)selection

Within the ccNSO, ICANN 79 marked a key milestone for the fourth ccNSO Policy Development Process on IDNs (ccPDP4). The ccPDP4 Working Group had recently submitted its Final Report, comprising policy recommendations for the (de)selection of IDN ccTLDs associated with ISO 3166-1 country codes (governed by Annex B of the ICANN Bylaws) and non-binding advice to IDN ccTLD managers on IDN Tables.

At its San Juan meeting, the ccNSO Council recommended adopting the ccPDP4 policy proposals and separately adopted the advice to IDN ccTLD managers. The Council’s recommendation triggered the next step in the ccNSO’s decision-making process: an online vote by ccNSO members following ICANN 79, with the expectation that, if adopted, the policy recommendations would be transmitted to the ICANN Board by ICANN 80. Once adopted and implemented, the new policy is intended to replace the IDN ccTLD Fast Track Process for the selection of IDN ccTLD strings.

In a joint session with ccNSO-appointed Board members, the ccNSO also discussed the status of implementing ccPDP3 on a review mechanism for decisions on delegation, transfer, revocation and retirement of ccTLDs, and sought clarification on the Board’s timeline and legal review of those recommendations.

EPDP-IDNs Phase 2

On the gTLD side, the Expedited Policy Development Process on IDNs (EPDP-IDNs) used its ICANN 79 working session to finalize preliminary recommendations on the IDN Table Harmonization Mechanism and to continue Phase 2 work on second-level variant management.

There was agreement within the EPDP-IDNs Team that harmonization of IDN Tables is necessary, but debate remained about how this should occur, including whether requirements should be defined for within-script and cross-script variant code points. For questions involving gTLD registration data, the team chose to focus its recommendation on the substantive result—that the source domain name and all allocated variants should be provided in relevant data sets—rather than prescribing a specific protocol solution. The team planned to continue its Phase 2 work after ICANN 79 and to publish an Initial Report for Public Comment.

ccNSO and IDNs in Broader Governance

Beyond formal PDPs, ccNSO sessions at ICANN 79 explored the impact of Internet fragmentation on ccTLDs, including regulatory developments that may affect IDN deployment in different jurisdictions. The Internet Governance Liaison Committee (IGLC) used San Juan to brief ccTLDs on fragmentation trends and to encourage ccTLD participation in United Nations processes such as the Global Digital Compact (GDC) and the WSIS+20 review.

In its joint session with the Board, the ccNSO emphasized that IDNs and ccTLD policies intersect with these global processes and urged stronger ICANN leadership in defending the multistakeholder model in intergovernmental fora.

Registration Data, RDRS and Accuracy

Registration data governance remained a cross-cutting theme in San Juan, touching on disclosure mechanisms, privacy/proxy services, accuracy and the intersection with legislative frameworks such as the EU’s NIS2 Directive.

The GAC’s ICANN 79 Communiqué included Consensus Advice calling for improved response times to urgent requests for gTLD registration data and drew attention to persistent challenges in accessing non-public data for law enforcement and other public-interest purposes. The Communiqué also identified gTLD registration data (including the Registration Data Request Service (RDRS), implementation of privacy/proxy accreditation, and registration data accuracy) as an issue of importance for governments, alongside DNS Abuse and transparency of GNSO Statements of Interest (SOIs).

In a joint session with the ICANN Board, the GAC asked about concrete timelines and mechanisms for achieving appropriate response times for urgent registration data requests. The Board indicated it would continue engaging with the GNSO, particularly on authentication models for law enforcement users in the RDRS and related systems, and noted the need for cooperation with global law enforcement agencies.

Within the GNSO’s Contracted Parties House (CPH), San Juan discussions linked the new Registration Data Policy (arising from the EPDP on the Temporary Specification) to NIS2 implementation in the EU. The CPH and Board agreed that, at that time, they had not identified conflicts between NIS2 requirements and ICANN contracts, and that the flexibility built into the Registration Data Policy should help contracted parties adapt to evolving national legislation.

At-Large’s plenary on “Building Trust on the Internet through Registrant Verification” examined how verification practices intersect with DNS Abuse mitigation and registration data access, particularly from an end-user and civil society perspective. The session considered trade-offs between stronger identity checks, usability and privacy, and how registrant education and better disclosure of data handling practices might complement technical and contractual measures.

DNS Abuse

DNS Abuse featured prominently across Supporting Organizations, Advisory Committees and Board interactions at ICANN 79.

Within the GNSO’s Contracted Parties House, registries and registrars held membership and outreach sessions that continued to focus on DNS Abuse and the upcoming effective date (April 5, 2024) of the recently-approved DNS Abuse contract amendments to the base gTLD Registry Agreement and the 2013 Registrar Accreditation Agreement. In their joint session with the ICANN Board, Contracted Parties discussed next steps for implementing the amendments, signaled their intention to monitor metrics and data to assess impact, and described ongoing engagement with ICANN Contractual Compliance. The Board welcomed the passage of the amendments and encouraged sharing best practices beyond the minimum contractual requirements.

At-Large and the Regional At-Large Organizations (RALOs) framed DNS Abuse from an end-user perspective. NARALO’s roundtable on “DNS and Domain Abuse in the Digital Economy” brought together experts from security, business, technology and human rights fields to discuss trends, use and abuse cases, and mitigation efforts, with a focus on how abuse affects end users and small organisations. RALO leaders also examined DNS Abuse in the context of broader accountability and continuous improvement work streams.

Tech Day, held under the ccNSO banner, included presentations on DNSSEC, data collection, Domain Abuse Activity Reporting and DNS Abuse prevention and mitigation, providing a technical and operational angle on abuse trends and measurement. Within the ccNSO, a registrant capacity small team reported on efforts to adapt ICANN registrant educational materials so they are more relevant to ccTLD managers and their local user bases, including material linked to DNS Abuse awareness.

From an advisory committee perspective, the Security and Stability Advisory Committee (SSAC) used its ICANN 79 work sessions to advance the Compass project on measuring DNS Abuse and to discuss how improved measurement and data collection can support policy, contractual and technical responses. DNS Abuse also appeared in GAC–GNSO and GAC–CPH joint sessions as an issue where governments expected demonstrable progress from ICANN’s contractual and policy tools.

ICANN Grant Program and Auction Proceeds

A major Board decision associated with ICANN 79 concerned the ICANN Grant Program established to distribute proceeds from last-resort auctions in the 2012 New gTLD round. At its March 7, 2024 meeting in San Juan, the ICANN Board adopted a resolution on “Funding of Successful Applications within the ICANN Grant Program First Cycle.”

Building on the Cross-Community Working Group on New gTLD Auction Proceeds (CCWG-AP) Final Report and earlier Board action in 2022, the Board confirmed that approximately USD 225 million in auction proceeds were available and approved an envelope (up to USD 10 million) to fund successful applications in the first Grant Program cycle, along with covering reasonable administrative costs from auction proceeds. The resolution clarified how the Board intended to operationalize CCWG-AP recommendations in a manner consistent with ICANN’s Mission, not-for-profit status and the Empowered Community’s oversight role.

In their joint session, the GNSO Council and Board discussed a proposed Fundamental Bylaw amendment relating to access to accountability mechanisms for Grant Program decisions, noting that its purpose was to avoid diverting significant portions of the grant funds to litigation while preserving the Empowered Community’s authority. GNSO councilors sought assurances that this change would not become a precedent to restrict accountability mechanisms more broadly; the Board stated it had no such intent.

Within At-Large, an operational session on the Grant Program provided details on program design and offered At-Large members an opportunity to ask questions on eligibility, evaluation criteria and how end-user-focused projects might be positioned in the first application cycle.

Supporting Organizations and Advisory Committees

ccNSO

The ccNSO’s San Juan agenda combined policy development milestones, strategic planning and community development.

At the ccNSO Council meeting, councilors voted to recommend adoption of the ccPDP4 policy proposals on IDN ccTLD (de)selection and adopted related advice to IDN ccTLD managers, initiating the post-Council membership vote phase. The Council also revisited outcomes from previous “World Café” sessions on the theme “shaping the ccNSO for 2030”, confirmed the distribution of Council roles and responsibilities for the coming year, and discussed consolidation of ccTLD policies and identification of gaps in post-delegation processes (delegation, transfer, revocation and retirement).

During the ccNSO Members Meeting, the IGLC organized a session on Internet fragmentation and its implications for ccTLDs, exploring regulatory realities and mitigation approaches across regions. A ccNSO Council subgroup presented work on mapping policy gaps in post-delegation processes and engaged ccTLDs in discussing hypothetical cases and potential tools to address these gaps, with the intention of reporting back at ICANN 80 and potentially producing consolidated guidance documents.

The Guidelines Review Committee updated the community on continuous improvement work, including a statement of interest process for ccNSO working groups and a Council-specific conflicts-of-interest process, informed by open-space sessions that had identified engagement, knowledge-sharing, and process and structural improvements as priority areas.

GNSO

For the GNSO, ICANN 79 combined PDP work, Council decision-making and cross-community engagement.

The EPDP-IDNs working session and the Transfer Policy Review PDP meetings advanced Phase 2 IDN questions and remaining elements of the inter-registrar transfer policy, respectively. In the Transfer PDP, the working group presented draft preliminary recommendations on Change of Registrant requirements and invited community feedback, while continuing discussion on required notices, opt-out possibilities and a potential exception to the 30-day inter-registrar transfer lock, ahead of preparing its Initial Report.

At its March 6, 2024 meeting, the GNSO Council adopted the Final Report of the Small Team on Communications, which proposed a strategic communications plan to improve how the Council explains and promotes its work to broader audiences. The Council also advanced action items from its December 2023 strategic planning session, including a comprehensive assessment of the Program Management Tool, exploring better ways to manage PDP working groups, revising small-team guidelines, and developing an aspirational statement to guide PDP/EPDP decision-making.

In its joint session with the Board, the Council focused on three main topics: engagement on pending policy recommendations (including from SubPro), the proposed Fundamental Bylaw change related to the Grant Program, and the handling of private auctions and NIS2 implications, as described in sections above.

ALAC and At-Large

The At-Large community used ICANN 79 to revisit its policy priorities and operational planning for end-user representation. Policy-focused sessions centered on the Next Round Applicant Support Program, digital hygiene and cybersafety, and broader Internet governance topics such as the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). A plenary on “Internet Governance and the Sustainable Development Goals” brought together community, Board and org representatives to examine how ICANN-related work interfaces with the SDG agenda.

Operational sessions included discussions on the FY26–30 strategic planning process, the Continuous Improvement Program, and At-Large governance, as well as a dedicated session on the ICANN Grant Program. At-Large concluded the meeting with a wrap-up session aimed at capturing achievements from ICANN 79 and setting priorities for ICANN 80.

RALOs ran region-specific activities. AFRALO held a session on its statement "Artificial Intelligence: AI-Powered Tools in the Service of DNS Management in Africa: Opportunities, Challenges, and Impacts", using ICANN 79 feedback to refine the document and receiving updates on the Coalition for Digital Africa and ICANN-Managed Root Server deployments in the region. NARALO's events included a Town Hall, the DNS Abuse roundtable noted above, and a networking event bringing together NARALO members, Fellows, NextGen participants and others.

In its joint session with the Board, the ALAC raised questions about the implementation of the Work Stream 2 recommendation for an advisory panel to suggest Ombuds candidates, noting that the Board had instead established a search committee after the previous Ombuds resigned. The Board explained the interim nature of that choice and reiterated its intent to implement the panel in future processes. The session also touched on RVCs, DNS Abuse, and expectations for the next Ombuds selection.

GAC

The GAC's work in San Juan combined advice development, capacity building and preparation for the Kigali HLGM. GAC members conducted more than 28 hours of meetings, including joint sessions with several community groups, and produced the ICANN 79 GAC Communiqué on March 11, 2024.

The Communiqué contained Consensus Advice on the Applicant Support Program for the Next Round and on improving response times for urgent requests for gTLD registration data, as described above. It also included GAC statements on seven issues of importance to governments: DNS Abuse, cost–benefit analysis of the New gTLD Program, PICs and RVCs, gTLD registration data (including RDRS, privacy/proxy accreditation and accuracy), transparency and GNSO SOIs, the role of the Regional Internet Registries (RIRs), and IPv6 deployment.

Capacity-development sessions focused on ccTLD management (with a case study from .pr), ccTLD transfers and the IANA function, and IP address allocations and RIR roles (presented by RIPE NCC). These sessions were organized with a view to repeating or expanding them at future meetings, reflecting strong positive feedback. The GAC Underserved Regions Working Group also considered how to build on this model at ICANN 80 and ICANN 81.

In joint meetings, the GAC discussed Applicant Support and inclusive participation with the ALAC; IPv4 transfers, IPv6 and criteria for new RIRs with the ASO; the Next Round, DNS Abuse, WHOIS and data protection, and transparency of GNSO processes with the GNSO Council and CPH; leadership opportunities and the 2025 GAC seat on the Nominating Committee (NomCom); Universal Acceptance and UA work in the ccNSO with the UASG; and a wide range of topics with the ICANN Board, including registration data disclosure, protected terms in new gTLDs, Applicant Support funding and outreach, and the Next Round cost–benefit analysis.

RSSAC

The RSSAC held five work sessions in San Juan to advance its work program and discuss operational matters, including the Security Incident Reporting Work Party and root server system messaging. also considered a statement of work for a possible new effort on guidelines for changing root server addresses, reflecting ongoing attention to operational stability of the root server system.

SSAC

The SSAC used ICANN 79 to progress several major work items. It reviewed Name Collision Analysis Project (NCAP) Study 2 and discussed how to present its findings to the Board, focusing on security risks of name collisions and a proposed risk assessment framework The Compass project team reported on advances in measuring DNS Abuse, including methodologies and data sources, and the SSAC discussed how these measurements could inform policy and contract discussions.

In its joint session with the Board, the SSAC engaged on topics including the data and risk analysis underpinning the Next Round, potential data protection impact assessments, and how SSAC advice could inform Board decisions in areas such as registration data disclosure and DNS Abuse measurement.

ASO

The ASO participated in joint sessions with the GAC and other groups, focusing on IPv4 transfers, IPv6 deployment and ongoing work on criteria for establishing new RIRs. These discussions positioned address policy and number resource governance in the broader ICANN79 agenda, particularly in relation to government concerns about IPv6 uptake and regional infrastructure development.

Board and Leadership Actions

At its regular meeting on March 7, 2024, held alongside ICANN 79, the ICANN Board approved amendments to the Root Zone Evolution Review Committee (RZERC) Charter following a periodic review and Public Comment proceeding. The updates refined the scope and terminology of the Charter (including clarifying “significant” architectural or operational changes to the root zone), aligned charter reviews with ICANN’s Public Comment processes, and added provisions on quorum and decision-making procedures to improve operational clarity.

The Board also adopted revisions to the charters of the Board Strategic Planning Committee and the Board Technical Committee, aligning them with current practices and emphasizing the Strategic Planning Committee’s role in annually reassessing priorities in the ICANN Five-Year Strategic Plan and the Technical Committee’s oversight of technical work necessary to meet ICANN’s mission.

In addition to the ICANN Grant Program resolution described above, the Board resolutions from the San Juan meeting included consent-agenda items such as approval of previous minutes and committee charter updates. Throughout ICANN 79, Board members participated in multiple joint sessions with SO/ACs, using these engagements to preview work on the next ICANN strategic plan, discuss geo-political and legislative developments (including the WSIS+20 Outreach Network), and respond to concerns about transparency, accountability mechanisms and the balance between legal risk management and timely policy implementation.

External Internet Governance Processes

Several sessions at ICANN 79 situated ICANN’s work within broader Internet governance and multilateral processes. The ccNSO–Board joint session addressed ICANN’s engagement in United Nations processes related to the Global Digital Compact (GDC) and the WSIS+20 review, with ccTLDs encouraging more visible ICANN leadership in defending the multistakeholder model. The Board previewed aspects of the Geopolitical, Legislative and Regulatory Update session, including the WSIS+20 Outreach Network, in its joint meeting with the GAC.

At-Large’s plenary on “Internet Governance and the Sustainable Development Goals” examined how DNS governance, access policies and technical capacity intersect with sustainable development objectives, reflecting the community’s interest in linking ICANN-specific work with global policy frameworks.

North America, according to the ICANN Geographic Regions (ICANN Geographic Regions).

Generic Top-level Domain

Internationalized Domain Name

Governmental Advisory Committee. Considers and provides advice on the activities of ICANN as they relate to concerns of governments, particularly matters where there may be an interaction between ICANN's policies and various laws and international agreements or where they may affect public policy issues (ICANN Bylaws).

Policy Development Process

Generic Names Supporting Organization. Develops and recommends to the Board substantive policies relating to generic top-level domains and other responsibilities set forth in the Bylaws (ICANN Bylaws).

Generic Top-level Domain

At-Large Advisory Committee. Considers and provides advice on the activities of ICANN related to the interests of individual Internet users (ICANN Bylaws). Not to be confused with the Non-Commercial Stakeholder Group.

Internationalized Domain Name

Country code top-level domain. Determined by "ISO 3166-1: Codes for the representation of names of countries and their subdivisions — Part 1: Country codes".

Country Code Names Supporting Organization. Develops and recommends to the Board global policies relating to country-code top-level domains (ICANN Bylaws).

Country code top-level domain. Determined by "ISO 3166-1: Codes for the representation of names of countries and their subdivisions — Part 1: Country codes".

International Organization for Standardization

Expedited Policy Development Process

Policy Development Process

Europe, according to the ICANN Geographic Regions (ICANN Geographic Regions).

Contracted Parties House. Includes the Registries Stakeholder Group and the Registrars Stakeholder Group (ICANN Bylaws).

North American Regional At-Large Organization

Regional At-Large Organization

Domain Name System Security Extensions

Security and Stability Advisory Committee. Advises the ICANN community and Board on matters relating to the security and integrity of the Internet's naming and address allocation systems (ICANN Bylaws).

Asia/Australia/Pacific, according to the ICANN Geographic Regions (ICANN Geographic Regions).

The African Regional At-Large Organization

Internet Assigned Numbers Authority

Regional Internet Registry

Réseaux IP Européens Network Coordination Centre

Address Supporting Organization. Advises the Board with respect to policy issues relating to the operation, assignment, and management of Internet addresses (ICANN Bylaws).

Nominating Committee

Universal Acceptance Steering Group

Root Server System Advisory Committee. Advises the ICANN community and Board on matters relating to the operation, administration, security, and integrity of the Internet's Root Server System (ICANN Bylaws).

World Summit on the Information Society