Public Comment
closed Preliminary Issue Report on Latin Script Diacritics
CategoryPolicy
Requesters Generic Names Supporting Organization (GNSO) , ICANN org
Outcome
In total, forty-one (41) Public Comments were submitted on the Preliminary Issue Report on Latin Script Diacritics by a range of stakeholders across the community. Thirty-seven (37) of the total Public Comments were in support of the initiation of a policy development process (PDP) for Latin Script Diacritics. The comments stated that this was an important step toward inclusivity and equality in a multilingual Internet and would align with the broader goal of Universal Acceptance (UA). Two (2) comments were mixed, indicating that while this represents an important step for inclusivity, it could negatively impact end users, create confusion, and make it difficult to distinguish between authentic and malicious websites. One (1) comment was against initiating a PDP on this topic on the basis of maintaining a user-friendly and secure Internet. Finally, one (1) comment was deemed out of scope as it was a word choice issue that goes against the common parlance on this topic.
ICANN staff would like to thank the community for engaging so deeply and thoroughly on this topic through the Public Comment Process. The community input on Latin Script Diacritics will be considered by the staff in preparing the Final Issue Report for GNSO Council consideration and determining the next steps. All comments will be shared with the GNSO Council.
What We Received Input On
This Preliminary Issue Report on Latin Script Diacritics examines a single issue: the circumstance where a base ASCII generic top-level domain (gTLD) and the Latin script diacritic version of the gTLD are not variants of each other, and where currently no mechanism exists that allows a single registry operator to simultaneously operate both gTLDs. The report provides additional background about this issue, including factors that might be appropriate for considering the scope of the issue or that might aid in a policy development process (PDP), and an assessment as to whether this issue is within scope of the ICANN policy process and the GNSO. The report also includes a draft PDP charter.
Your input will be reviewed in preparing the final Issue Report that the GNSO Council will consider in determining next steps.
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Background
This Preliminary Issue Report focuses on the circumstance when an ASCII gTLD and the Latin script diacritic version of the gTLD are not variants of each other and yet may be found to be visually similar. The issue could arise when gTLD applications submitted in ASCII and as a Latin script diacritic are found to be visually confusingly similar, with no existing mechanism to allow for both to be contracted and delegated into the root zone. On 16 May 2024, the GNSO Council requested an Issue Report on this topic to assist in determining whether a PDP should be initiated on the topic.
In its request, the Council stressed that the report must include details on why code points with and without diacritics are distinct letters, and therefore not the “same” letter (i.e., are not variants). The Council is particularly interested in the outcome regarding variants, as the variant management rules from Phase 1 of the Expedited Policy Development Process on Internationalized Domain Names that the Board adopted in June 2024 will provide an avenue for “similar” strings to be simultaneously delegated.