The ICANN Community Virtual Forum was the first of the three annual meetings organised by the body which regulates the two basic technical infrastructures for the internet: the domains and IP addresses which enable users to find content housed on the internet.

This was the fourth of these meetings to adopt a virtual format, given the impossibility of congregating a large number of representatives from governments, associations and industry.

This first meeting of the year is used for planning the tasks of the various workgroups during the rest of the year. This year will see the groups centre on the development of mechanisms which allow domain owners to be contacted without their privacy being compromised, and on the improvement of efficiency in remote work carried out by the ICANN. The group which was analysing the impact of new internet domains has submitted its report and consideration is now being given on how to open up to new domains.

The meeting covered two subjects in depth which directly affect internet users, particularly in Europe: internet crime using domain names and the new European legal framework on the right to the internet.

Crimes with domain names

Recent years have seen surge in internet crime, particularly cases where domain names are used to deceive users by displaying pages which appear to be official, or where email addresses are used to send fraudulent messages.

Internet registers are a key element in identifying these crimes, and we are working on technical initiatives and regulations which will enable us to offer our users greater security.

New European legal framework

The European Commission has put together a series of new regulations which represent a greater degree of protection for European consumers and internet users. The regulations will establish stricter obligations for all companies operating on the internet, particularly large platforms such as Google and Facebook.

While the regulations are not due to be approved until early in 2023, we are studying them and giving our input to EU representatives to improve the aspects relating to domain name users.

GeoTLD general assembly

The GeoTLD group is an association which represents the interests of geographical, cultural and linguistic domains, of which .barcelona is a member. Its representatives work to give the communities they represent a more prominent role in the internet.

The main goal of the assembly was precisely this new European legal framework for the internet. Our goal as the representative for the .barcelona community with the internet’s governing bodies is to offer the citizens and internet users we represent the chance to express themselves and voice their concerns.

This annual assembly was also used to present the new design of the website geotld.group, which features a collaborative section for news items by all its members. Another highlight was the presentation of a new international promotional video to explain what geographical domains are and the main advantages to them.