In a submission to the ITU World Telecommunication Development Conference 2025, ICANN outlines how Internationalized Domain Names and Universal Acceptance can advance meaningful connectivity, while warning that large gaps remain in software support, email interoperability and multilingual access.
Australia’s model stands out for its wide applicability across platforms and its enforcement-first approach, rather than mandating age-verification technologies upfront.
The blackout - carried out without public explanation - cut off internet and phone services across the country, disrupting everyday communication, public services, humanitarian operations, and critical access to healthcare.
At the core of the framework is the principle that child protection is a shared responsibility among all participants in the internet ecosystem. The guidelines balance children’s right to access information and express themselves online with the need to prevent exploitation, exposure to harmful content, and other risks.
A coalition of African and international digital rights organisations has issued an open letter urging the Tanzanian government to refrain from internet shutdowns, censorship, and arbitrary restrictions during the country’s general election on 29 October 2025. The letter calls on authorities and telecommunications companies to uphold constitutional and international human rights standards guaranteeing freedom of expression and access to information.
China’s top legislature has approved revisions to the Cybersecurity Law that integrate artificial intelligence (AI) into the country’s cybersecurity and digital governance framework. The amendments, effective 1 January 2026, introduce explicit state support for AI research, algorithm development, and data infrastructure, while strengthening ethical oversight, risk monitoring, and enforcement against cyber offenses.
The privacy rights group noyb has filed a criminal complaint in Austria against Clearview AI and its executives, alleging persistent violations of EU data protection law. The US-based facial recognition firm, already fined by several European regulators for unlawful biometric data processing, is accused of ignoring EU enforcement orders and continuing to operate outside European legal frameworks.
Adopted by the UN General Assembly in 2024, the convention establishes international standards for collecting and sharing electronic evidence, criminalizes cyber-dependent and online exploitation offences, and creates a 24/7 cooperation network.
ICANN and ALETI have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to promote Universal Acceptance (UA) of domain names and email addresses throughout Latin America and the Caribbean. The partnership aims to strengthen the region’s technical capacity and ensure that digital tools and online services support all languages, scripts, and domain formats, fostering a more inclusive and multilingual Internet.
It is important to emphasise that these are preliminary findings. They do not amount to a final decision. The platforms in question now have the opportunity to review the investigation’s documents and submit written replies. The formal proceedings remain open.
Civil Society Alliances for Digital Empowerment (CADE) is a project co-funded by the European Union.
