U.S. Statement on Geographic Names in Advance of Durban Meeting
NTIA, in its role as the U.S. government’s representative to the Governmental Advisory Committee (GAC) of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), has actively participated in the development of the GAC’s advice on the rollout of new generic top-level domain names (gTLDs). The statement below is the U.S. government’s position related to certain proposed geographic gTLDs. Building on discussions about these gTLDs within the GAC at ICANN’s Beijing meeting in April, the GAC will continue talks on the issue at ICANN’s 47th meeting in Durban, South Africa July 12-18. We acknowledge the diligence of all parties, particularly the applicants, to follow the process set forth in the Applicant Guidebook and, as noted in the statement, will work to clarify these rules for future applications.