India's AI summit promised a Global South rethink of digital governance. Instead, a weak declaration and Delhi's accession to America's Pax Silica exposed widening power asymmetries, leaving countries like Brazil outside the real circuitry of control.
As policymakers search for an IAEA for AI, lessons from ICANN and internet governance loom large, raising questions about multistakeholder legitimacy, mission creep, technical fragmentation and whether AI demands sector-specific regulation rather than grand global architectures.
Under ICANN's ICP-2 framework, RIR emergency operations extend beyond technical redundancy to encompass legal relocation, policy divergence and geopolitical risk, exposing tensions between operational resilience and national sovereignty in safeguarding global internet governance.
Meltnet envisions a federated internet model led by BRICS nations, combining digital sovereignty with cross-border interoperability. It challenges US-centric governance by proposing a trust-based architecture rooted in shared standards and mutual recognition.
With the NIS2 Directive now in effect, a new annex to ICANN contracts offers registries and registrars a practical, flexible path to Article 28 compliance. Early adoption has drawn international praise.
ICANN invites proposals for its DNSSEC and Security Workshop at the ICANN85 Community Forum in March 2026, offering a platform for global experts to share insights on DNS, routing security, and emerging threats.
The draft String Similarity Evaluation Guidelines risk entrenching past failures of Internet governance. With opaque algorithms and no right of appeal, ICANN's credibility hangs on whether transparency and fairness are restored before final adoption.
A 2026 outlook charts Internet governance between fear and hope, tracking cyber conflict, digital trade and taxation, shrinking rights, and global AI rivalry, while asking whether multistakeholder cooperation can still steer the network toward stability.
ICANN's 2026 Nominating Committee invites applications for key policy council roles that shape global Internet governance, offering leadership opportunities in domain regulation, digital rights, and multistakeholder decision-making. Deadline: 18 February 2026.
The gTLD race is not just about technical readiness. Governance strategy, institutional stamina, and adversarial foresight will define success in ICANN's 2026 round, where geopolitical resistance, not DNS errors, threatens survival.
ICANN's Nominating Committee is calling for community input to help shape its 2026 leadership selection. Feedback on candidate criteria, job descriptions, and process improvements is due by 21 January 2026.
In African Internet governance, procedural authorship is quietly displacing community legitimacy. When conveners, not members, define reform processes, legitimacy becomes retrospective and trust erodes -- not by intention, but through unchecked structural roles.
Internet governance is shifting from participatory forums to security-driven mandates. As authority accelerates ahead of legitimacy, technical systems face growing instability and operators absorb the risks of politically motivated control.
As Internet governance fragments in 2026, authority shifts from open, multistakeholder forums to state-led security regimes, legal instruments, and alliance-based cooperation, challenging longstanding institutions and reshaping global norms through enforcement rather than consensus.
The UN's move to grant permanence to the Internet Governance Forum reframes legitimacy in digital policy. As states accelerate action, multistakeholder processes risk becoming ceremonial, with speed replacing consent as the arbiter of influence.
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