GNSO Council advances DNS abuse policy work and reviews data disclosure mechanisms
At its final meeting of 2025, the ICANN Generic Names Supporting Organization (GNSO) Council approved the next steps for policy work on DNS abuse mitigation, agreed on a phased approach to controversial issues, and formally acknowledged findings from the Registration Data Request Service (RDRS) Standing Committee. The discussions highlighted ongoing tensions between abuse mitigation, registrant rights, and the pace and scope of policy development.
The GNSO Council met on 11 December 2025 for its last session of the year, focusing on two major policy files: DNS abuse mitigation and the future handling of non-public registration data.
A central outcome of the meeting was the Council’s approval of a motion to pursue two separate Policy Development Processes (PDPs) on DNS abuse mitigation. The first PDP will focus on Associated Domain Checks, a mechanism under which registrars would be required to examine other domains linked to a registrant once one domain is confirmed as malicious. A second PDP, addressing issues such as API access, will only be launched later, once progress, resources, and scope for the first PDP are clearer.
To address concerns raised during public comment, particularly by the Non-Commercial Stakeholder Group (NCSG), the Council agreed to establish a time-limited Charter Drafting Team before formally launching the first PDP. Several councillors stressed that this step is intended to ensure tighter scoping, clearer process design, and proper consideration of potential human rights and due process impacts, without pre-empting the substantive outcomes of the PDP itself.
Despite reservations expressed by some groups about the prioritisation of Associated Domain Checks and the risk of false positives affecting registrants, the motion passed with overwhelming support. Members who voted in favour nonetheless placed formal statements on the record, underlining the need for safeguards, remedies for registrants, and greater transparency in how evidence and external research are used in policy making.
The Council also unanimously accepted the RDRS Standing Committee’s findings report as input for future deliberations on the stalled EPDP Phase 2 recommendations concerning access to registration data. While the report’s recommendations are not a binding policy, councillors recognised its value as empirical evidence drawn from the RDRS pilot. Several speakers suggested that a small or informal group may be needed to examine how the findings, together with ongoing public comments, could inform the Council’s next steps in discussions with the ICANN Board.
Beyond formal votes, the meeting included preparatory discussions for the Council’s 2026 Strategic Planning Session, reflecting on the Council’s role as manager of PDPs and the tools available to oversee complex and resource-intensive policy work.
