Addressing the UN General Assembly’s Third Committee, UN experts highlighted the risks of developing AI without the participation of persons with disabilities. They called for accessible design, human oversight and safeguards to protect disability rights, privacy and autonomy.
The new Industry Specification Group on Semantic Technologies in AI-Native Networks will coordinate research, develop common technical frameworks and support future standardisation of semantic communications.
Discussions at the 81st session of the UN General Assembly highlighted the gap between agreed principles for responsible state behaviour in cyberspace and their implementation. Delegates examined how malicious ICT activities can affect international peace and security, and the role of the new Global Mechanism in strengthening cooperation.
More than 30 MEPs have called on the European Commission to examine how online platforms may have contributed to protest-related violence in France, Belgium and Italy. Their proposals include investigating the spread of illegal content, reviewing crisis response mechanisms under the Digital Services Act and strengthening protections for minors.
The Governmental Advisory Committee’s communiqué from its October meeting in Bali covers a range of internet governance issues, including DNS abuse mitigation, access to domain registration data, the 2026 round of new generic top-level domains, universal acceptance and the Committee’s internal work.
ICANN has selected JAS Global Advisors to oversee quality control across evaluations in the 2026 round of the New Generic Top-Level Domains (gTLD) Program, including Community Priority Evaluation.
The ICANN Board has approved most of a new framework for selecting and managing internationalised country-code top-level domains (IDN ccTLDs) and their variants. However, it rejected provisions that would have allowed additional risk assessments for domain strings considered confusingly similar to existing top-level domains.
A proposed amendment to France’s public-order legislation would require social media platforms and hosting providers to remove certain content within one hour or face possible website blocking and search engine delisting. The proposal follows reports that the government had privately asked telecom operators to prepare DNS-based restrictions on major social media platforms during protests.
The UN Security Council has launched an Informal Expert Group on Technology, Peace and Security, led by Greece and Latvia. The initiative aims to provide Council members with expert advice on how emerging technologies affect conflicts, peace operations and international security.
UN human rights experts have warned that Meta’s content moderation and automated systems could restrict political expression and undermine equal participation in Brazil’s 2026 presidential elections. They have urged the company to ensure transparency, equal treatment of candidates and effective remedies.
Civil Society Alliances for Digital Empowerment (CADE) is a project co-funded by the European Union.
