ICANN Updates Process for Release of 2-Character ASCII Domain Names

Today, ICANN is announcing updates to the “Authorization Process for the Release of Two-Character ASCII Labels” to take into account additional direction from the ICANN Board. This applies to New gTLD registries wishing to lift the ICANN registration ban on 2-character domain names.

On 12 February 2015, the Board took action to accept advice from the Governmental Advisory Committee (GAC) on this subject issued in the GAC‘s 11 February 2015 Communiqué – Singapore [PDF, 113 KB], and directed the President and CEO, or his designee, to proceed immediately to implement the following changes to the process:

• Implement improvements to the process to alert relevant governments when requests are initiated. Comments from relevant governments will be fully considered.
• For new requests, the comment period will be for 60 days.
• For requests with pending or completed comment periods, extend or re-open the comment period so that each request will undergo 60 days of comment period in total.

The updates to the process are effective as of 23 February 2015. The webpage where users can review requests has also been updated with several enhancements to improve navigability and allow users to find information more easily. New features include the following:

• Requests can now be sorted by reference number, TLD, registry name and date posted.
• The list of all requests for letter/letter two-character ASCII labels is now available for download as a .csv file.
• A column has been added to identify whether a TLD has been granted a .BRAND specification.
• The “View Comments” page has been updated to show all comments made in a calendar year, rather than showing comments on a month-by-month basis.

Please refer to the Authorization Process for Release of Two-Character ASCII Labels webpage for additional details.