WS #93 My Language, My Internet – IDN Assists Next Billion Netusers

Summary

This workshop focused on the importance of multilingualism in the internet, particularly through Internationalized Domain Names (IDNs) and Email Address Internationalization (EAI). Participants emphasized that a multilingual internet is crucial for digital inclusion, as a significant portion of the global population does not speak English. They discussed challenges in implementing IDNs and EAI, including lack of awareness, technical readiness, and limited local language content online.

Successful initiatives were shared, such as Egypt’s efforts to create a consistent Arabic online environment and India’s promotion of Hindi domain names and email addresses. Panelists stressed the need for government involvement, suggesting policies to mandate Universal Acceptance (UA) readiness in procurement and encourage local language content development. They also highlighted the role of big tech companies and the importance of grassroots movements in driving adoption.

Looking to the future, participants proposed strategies like bundling IDN domains with traditional ones, offering free internationalized email addresses, and integrating UA concepts into academic curricula. The discussion touched on the potential of IDNs to enhance internet safety by making it easier for users to identify legitimate websites in their native languages. Participants also noted the broader implications of a multilingual internet for AI development and linguistic justice, emphasizing the need to preserve and promote diverse languages in the digital space.

Keypoints

Major discussion points:

– The importance of multilingualism and internationalized domain names (IDNs) for digital inclusion and bridging the digital divide

– Challenges in implementing IDNs and universal acceptance, including lack of awareness, technical readiness, and content

– The role of governments, tech companies, and other stakeholders in promoting IDNs and multilingual internet

– Successful case studies and best practices for IDN implementation from different countries

– Future innovations and strategies to increase IDN adoption in the next 10 years

The overall purpose of the discussion was to explore how internationalized domain names and a multilingual internet can help connect the next billion internet users, particularly those who do not speak English or use Latin scripts.

The tone of the discussion was largely collaborative and solution-oriented. Participants shared challenges but focused on successful strategies and future opportunities. There was a sense of urgency about accelerating IDN adoption, balanced with recognition that progress takes time. The tone became more action-oriented towards the end as participants discussed concrete next steps.

Speakers

– Xiao Zhang: Moderator, Vice President of China Internet Network Information Center, the board member of APTLD

– Xianhong Hu: Secretariat of Information for All Programme (IFAP), UNESCO 

– Carol Roach: Chair of IGF-MAC, Undersecretary of the Ministry of Economic Affairs, Government of Bahamas

– Abdalmonem Tharwat Galila: Universal Acceptance (UA) Ambassador in Egypt

– Anil Kumar Jain: Chair of UASG at ICANN, Former CEO of National Internet Exchange of India

Expanded Summary of Discussion on Multilingualism and Internationalized Domain Names

Introduction:

This workshop focused on the critical importance of multilingualism in the internet, particularly through the implementation of Internationalized Domain Names (IDNs) and Email Address Internationalization (EAI). The discussion brought together experts from various fields to explore how these technologies can help connect the next billion internet users, especially those who do not speak English or use Latin scripts. The workshop was structured around three main themes: why multilingualism is essential to the internet, best practices and successful experiences to share, and innovations to consider for the next decade.

Importance of Multilingualism in Internet Access:

The participants unanimously agreed on the crucial role of multilingualism for digital inclusion. It was emphasized that language barriers currently exclude billions from digital society, with over 60% of the world’s population not conversing in English. Speakers highlighted how multilingualism promotes diversity and inclusion online, allowing users to access the internet in their native languages. The issue was framed as one of choice and language justice, with practical examples provided of how non-English speakers struggle with Latin-script domain names.

Challenges in Implementing IDNs and Universal Acceptance:

Despite the clear benefits, the speakers identified several challenges in implementing IDNs and achieving Universal Acceptance (UA). Abdalmonem Tharwat Galila highlighted a lack of awareness about IDNs and UA among stakeholders, limited readiness of email servers and software for IDNs/EAI, and security concerns with accepting new domain and email formats. He also noted the insufficient Arabic language content online as a barrier to adoption. Other speakers added that many systems and websites are not yet UA-ready, underscoring the technical hurdles that need to be overcome. Specific challenges faced in different regions regarding the use of non-Latin scripts online were discussed, providing a nuanced view of the global landscape.

Strategies to Promote IDN Adoption:

The discussion then turned to strategies for promoting IDN adoption. Suggestions included government policies and procurement requirements for UA, bundling IDN domains with existing TLDs, and offering free IDN email addresses with domain registrations. A grassroots movement to pressure email and tech providers was proposed, along with roadmaps for government and industry implementation. The importance of building UA-ready infrastructure from the start was emphasized, advocating for a ‘UA by design’ approach in new digital projects. Successful stories and efforts taken by countries or regions where IDN environments have significantly improved were shared, including the Raj Mail program in Rajasthan, India.

Role of Different Stakeholders:

The speakers agreed that multiple stakeholders have crucial roles to play in advancing multilingual internet use. Governments were called upon to encourage non-Latin content and IDN use. Tech companies need to prioritize multilingual support, and academia should integrate IDNs/UA into curricula. The role of CCTLDs in helping to get the next billion internet users online was highlighted. It was suggested that UN agencies could lead by example in using IDNs, with a specific proposal for the United Nations to use Chinese and French domain names and email addresses. Consumer demand was noted as a crucial driver for adoption by companies.

Future Implications and Broader Context:

The discussion touched on the broader implications of a multilingual internet for AI development. Concerns were raised about the current linguistic divide deepening with faster technological development, particularly in generative AI and large language models. This observation highlighted the urgency of addressing linguistic diversity not just for current internet use, but for the future development of AI and automated decision-making processes. It was also suggested that multilingualism could potentially increase trust on the internet by facilitating fact-checking in local languages.

Innovations and Future Directions:

Looking towards the future, several innovative ideas were proposed. These included connecting UA and IDN with broader digital inclusion strategies to engage governments more effectively, and the mention of an MOU between ICANN and UNESCO to push forward UA Day and provide information packages to governments. The importance of incentives was discussed, such as ICANN potentially lowering fees for UA-ready platforms. Preserving and promoting the use of endangered and indigenous languages online was identified as a crucial area for future focus.

Conclusion:

The discussion demonstrated a high level of consensus on the importance of multilingualism for digital inclusion and the need for coordinated efforts to implement IDNs and achieve Universal Acceptance. While there were some differences in approach, particularly between top-down government policies and bottom-up grassroots movements, these strategies were seen as potentially complementary. The conversation highlighted the complex, multifaceted nature of linguistic diversity in the digital age, framing it not just as a technical challenge but as a fundamental aspect of digital inclusion, cultural representation, and social justice. Moving forward, the speakers emphasized the need for concrete actions at multiple levels to create a truly multilingual and inclusive internet.

Xiao Zhang: Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to our workshop. It’s fantastic to see all of you here today. We’re here to explore the crucial role of multilingual Internet and how it can bridge global connection. You know, every click and every connection matters. That is why we’re talking about IDN and how we can make the digital world inclusive for all. And now we have very short opening remarks. And first, let’s welcome Ms. Carol Roach, Chair of IGF-MAC, and also Undersecretary of the Ministry of Economic Affairs, Government of the Bahamas, to deliver her opening remarks. Thank you. Please.

Carol Roach: Thank you. Distinguished ladies and gentlemen, colleagues, welcome to IGF 2024. I thank the organizers for including me in this very important workshop. Actually, I think it’s very important that even though I have another event, I told Xiao that I will definitely want to say just a quick word with you. So there’s an acronym called FOMO, which means fear of missing out. I will adapt this to say LOMO, left out, missing out. Without multilingualism, not everyone can say my internet. For a vast number of persons, the internet we want means representation to them in their own language. Multilingualism promotes diversity and opens doors. Today persons are missing out on what the digital society has to offer in education and healthcare, as well as socially and economically. We need to put accelerated action behind multilingualism. Those are enablers if we are to connect that part of the 2.6 billion that are unconnected due to some language barriers. I hope you have a fruitful session, and I look forward to your outcomes. Thank you for having me.

Xiao Zhang: Thank you, Carol. Thank you for coming. I know you’re very busy in this event, and I think the community will be encouraged. Thank you. Well, we have, I’ll introduce Ms. Xianhong Hu, the Secretary of Information for all program UNESCO to deliver her opening remarks online. Xianhong, please join us. Thank you.

Xianhong Hu: Hello. Hello. My name is Xianhong from UNESCO. Here are my very warm greetings from UNESCO headquarters in Paris, and I like to echo what has been said by the Chair of MAG, Carol, that language is so important in the global digital inclusion. I imagine language is… is an essential tool for human communication, information, knowledge exchange. To extend, one can use his or her own language to access, can decide to what extent he can really digitally participate and benefit from the digital transformation and the internet. But however, we have to see that at a global level, there are 7,000, more than 7,000 languages, but a very few portion of them are available on the internet and also in the AI models. Basically, mostly, they are still absent, not to mention those indigenous languages. So we perceive a huge linguistic divide. You know, at ITF, we heard so much concern about the divide, but I feel we need more awareness about how linguistic divide has been deepening with the faster development of technology. And this absence limits the universal access, limits the meaningful connectivity, excluding the marginalized groups. So that’s why UNESCO has been working with policymakers, AI developers, technologists, to work to reduce this bias in the database and the output. And today, that’s why UNESCO is here. We do perceive this session so important also because we believe in the new technologies. They have huge power, the potential to merge language bias, to merge language divide, and also to empower the multilingualism. So the good example is exactly today’s subject, IDN. It’s exactly, we can see a good practice to advance the universal connection and to network the next billions. And that’s my first message. Very quickly. My program on the information for all program is working on six priorities. One of them is multilingualism in cyberspace, but I also give you a big picture is also very fundamental to promote multilingualism for advancing other priorities such as information for development. Imagine in many developing country, the language, it is a barrier for them to benefit from the internet and knowledge society, information literacy, information preservation and digital preservation become also crucial, information ethics and also information accessibility. So in one word, we hope that we can enable all the users to create and access the digital content in their local and national languages. Lastly, I’d like to call for actions for all of you and ranging from those governments and also stakeholders really to prioritize language in their national digital policies and inclusion frameworks. And so call for the technical community, private sector companies to leverage those frontier technologies to translate this new technology into a multilingualism ecosystem. We have seen so many good practice today, I hope to hear more about the development of IDN. And very last invitation to all of you, we are organizing an international conference on the language technologies for all 2025 is themed for advancing humanism through language technologies to be held at the UNESCO headquarters in February 24, 26, 2025. I will tap the link that you can all register and the conference will explore the multilingualism’s critical role in fostering inclusive and cross-cultural dialogues and with a focus on how we empower communities. through language preservation and cutting-edge technology. So that’s all I want to say. And I wish today we have a fruitful discussion. Let us work together to enable a future where knowledge and innovation are accessible to all in every language. Thank you.

Xiao Zhang: Thank you, Xiankong. We hope to work together in the future. And now I would like to introduce our distinguished panelists. And to my right is Mr. Abdalmonem from Egypt. And please introduce yourself as briefly as you can. It is my pleasure as the first time to attend IGF 2024 for such a great session about bringing the next billion internet users to become online.

Abdalmonem Tharwat Galila: I am Abdalmonem Tharwat Galila. I am employed by the National Telecom Regulatory Authority of Egypt as a numbering planning manager and responsible for maintaining and operating the IDN CCLD of Egypt, which is called DotMask Arabic One. And also I have many positions within ICANN community. The recent ones are related to CCNSO, which are related to CCLDs as a chair of Universal Acceptance Committee. And also I have a position for UASG, Universal Acceptance Steering Group, as a vice chair of email address internationalization work group. And also I was a member of the Arabic IDN task force for Arabic language for domain names. Thank you.

Xiao Zhang: Thank you. And we have three online speakers. The first is from New Delhi, Mr. Anil Kumar. Please introduce yourself. Say hello.

Anil Kumar Jain: Currently I am chair of UASG at ICANN. And my previous work experiences related to internet was that I was chief executive officer of… of Nixie National Internet Exchange of India. Before that, as a bureaucrat, as a technocrat, I worked for almost 36 years in the telecom major government telecom of government of India. So this is the smallest and brief introduction. Thank you.

Xiao Zhang: Thank you. And also we have Edmund Chong from Hong Kong. Edmund.

Edmund Chong: Hi. Hi everyone. For those of you who know me, this is a topic that is very dear to my heart. For the last 25 years, I have been advocating for IDNs, internationalized domain names and email addresses and the universal acceptance of a multilingual internet. Maybe it’s my failing that this session is still happening, but I’d like to think that, you know, it takes time. The first 10 years was about the technology to develop and be accepted. In the last 10 years, we worked on a lot of the policies that will make a multilingual internet possible. And now is the time to implement. And I’m very excited to look forward to this session where we will talk about how to actually bring it forward and how to actually realize a fully multilingual internet with IDNs and internationalized email address.

Xiao Zhang: Thank you. The next speaker is Yao Jiankang from Scenic. Jiankang?

Yao Jiankang: Hello everyone. Hello host. So my name is Jiankang Yao from CNNIC. I’m chief architect of CNNIC. I have involved IDN worker for more than 20 years. I was involved IDN worker, EI worker in ITF and ICANN. So I love promote IDN and EI all over the world. Thank you.

Xiao Zhang: Thank you. I think we have only maybe 45 minutes left and we have nine questions. It’s huge. So I actually think we have three themes. So I want to, maybe we can go theme by theme. The first theme is why multilingualism is essential to internet for 15 minutes total. And so it actually, I want to cut it to three questions and you can answer the three questions together. Have I made myself clear? And the first question is what specific challenges have you faced or seen in your region regarding the use of non-Latin scripts online? And why, the second is why IDN, EAI, and UA, universal acceptance, matters? And three, why a multilingual internet is a safer internet? So I think the three questions are actually towards why multilingualism is essential to internet. So I want, Dominique, as board speaker, you tell us the piece. Maybe I think for each of us, we do have three to four minutes or not more than five minutes, please.

AUDIENCE: Sure, I am happy to answer this. Actually, for the challenges that affect the uptake of IDN or EAI or even universal acceptance within the Arab region, I will speak on behalf of the Arab region at the moment. Actually, there are three main challenges. The first one is linked to the content. The second one is awareness, lack of awareness. The third one is lack of readiness. The first one that is content, we are here for the Arab region, we are around 25 countries that claims that Arabic is the official or co-official language. With population more than 300 million population who are speaking Arabic, a native or non-native language. And Arabic is the fifth language used at the internet. So how come to have content? is around 3% of the online content to be for Arabic language. More than 300 million Arabic speakers and only have 3% only Arabic language is one of the challenges. The second challenge that I said before is related to awareness. Awareness for different levels of different stakeholders. When I am talking about awareness, I need to consider that we have individuals, we have decision makers, we have technologists, we have business makers, and we have the people, the organization who are interested to have all of these. Actually, the first one for me, and to be in short, the users, the individual, we have different users at the moment. We have English users that are happy, are using legacy domain names or legacy email addresses. We don’t need or there is no need for IDNs. Second type of individual, I could write Arabic, but I couldn’t speak English or write English. At this moment, I could go online and browse the internet and do something like that. But actually, the readiness of the environment is one of the challenges. The third one, I could speak Arabic, but I couldn’t write or read Arabic. So, this is one of the challenges. At this moment, you will go to use the text or voice recognition software, searching for YouTube or for TikTok or write even for social media. But we have a challenge here as well, that phonetics and accent are somehow different, especially for the Arabic script, which is, Arabic is a difficult language, not an easy one. Second, the challenge is related to readiness. Are the environment, are the email server AI certified? to handle such kind of email addresses, Arabic email addresses? No. Are there any software companies have released some softwares or some version of their software claims that are UA ready or AI certified from UAG? No. At this time, if I am an email administrator, I use it to read the release notes of this software. When I see that the provider say that it is AI compatible, it’s okay. I will read that and I will need to have more awareness about this, this one of the challenges. So we have three challenges. The second question I would like to reply is why IDN matters, why AI matters? When you are going to an ATM machine, you have Arabic or English or Chinese or Arabic or English. If I am Arabic, I select Arabic. I will not go for English. If you are going to the airport and want to check the flight status, you will go for the Arabic screen, not for the English one. If you are going to social media, you make tickets or bus through your own language, which is Arabic. So I keep it in trust. It’s confident. I am connected online. This one of the important. For businesses, there is around $9.8 billion USD came from two parts. The people or the individual or organization who would like to keep their identity online and to keep their brand, they will go for IDN, to use IDN or AI. And for other who want to keep his own legacy domain names and keep it as it is, will go for the user level domain names. So see, there’s a business here. For the point of view of government, applying IDNs or adopting IDNs or adopting AIs or adopting universal acceptance. it means the success of digital transformation projects to reach out to a large base of local customers. For technical community, I want to be competent to other competitors inside the market. I wanted to have the fairest chance that I am EI ready, I am UA ready, I am able to hand the next billion Internet users for the diversity of Internet users that will exist online. Sir, the question, I think Raymond will be the best one to answer this.

Xiao Zhang: I’m glad I talked to you. Thank you. Because we have limited time, you, I think the panelists, you don’t need to answer all the questions. You can emphasize something you want. Yeah. Next one may be Abdalmonem. Anil, please.

Anil Kumar Jain: Thank you. Thank you. And thank you, Abdalmonem, for starting the discussions. We have more than 60% of the population and especially in India, more than 82% of the population do not converse in English. So it is very, very important for an inclusive Internet. We have to include all those which are unconnected and we have to remove the language barrier for this. India, in India, we have more than 2000 dialects. But government of India has recognized 22 languages. Citizens are freely using local languages in mobile, especially in WhatsApp and SMS. But unfortunately, in Internet, they are not able to use because, number one, the less number of IDNs which are delegated. Number two, even IDNs are delegated. The websites are not prepared in local languages. I think government of India and Nixie are trying to work out not only to use IDN and EAI in government work, but they are trying to motivate the end users to adopt it. As Abdul Menon has said, AI and IDNs are the tools through which one can enter into internet using their local language and it is well understood that there is no replacement of local language than the mother tongue which somebody uses. So it is important that we should have a very clear, safe internet through which one can interact and they should be able to take the final results, what they desire to do it. The third question is whether it is safe to have IDN and local languages in the internet. Let me tell you that in ICANN, SSAC and USG has worked for the last 10-15 years and we have delivered several modules to ensure the safety and security of a multilingual internet. At present around 11% of the websites word over and around 23% of emails word over are UARID. So that speaks itself that the internet in multilingual is safe and the traffic in multilingual internet is growing day by day, although we have miles to go and we have a lot of targets to achieve. So I would like to stop here. Thank you.

Xiao Zhang: Thank you. And I’ll go to maybe Adam.

Edmund Chong: Thank you. So I guess building on what Anil and Abdalmonem was saying, when we think about IDNs and multilingual internet, it is about choice, which is the issue. You can choose to read in Arabic or you can choose to read in English. So those who say that, you know, we don’t really need it. People can type in the email address or domain name in English, fine. Really, it’s missing the question. The question is about the choice. The question is about the ability to operate in one’s native language. And that’s what IDN is about. That’s why, fundamentally, as we navigate the internet, that is what is needed. It is not just a question of a choice. In fact, the choice leads to the question about language justice. And that’s what I think Xianhong of UNESCO was talking about, especially about the language tech issue, about the indigenous language. You know, I understand that UNESCO is celebrating the decade of indigenous language to preserve indigenous language, but we’re talking about IDNs also about active language. So to say that just a, you know, homogenous world of English alphanumeric domain names and email address is enough is really not the right thing. This is the decade not only to save the indigenous language, but also to make sure that IDNs and the digital world can embrace fully the multilingual internet. And that’s what language justice is about. I think, and this is not just for countries or places where, you know, the majority of people speak language like in Chinese or Japanese or Korean or Arabic, but it’s also about countries like the US or Australia or Canada, where even though the majority speaks English, the systems should pay attention to accept the minority. That’s what we talk about in language justice. Don’t just think of it whether it’s a market opportunity, I think it’s a matter of language justice. Finally, I want to touch on the question about why is a multilingual Internet a safer Internet? Well, one of the things that I’m sure many of you have looked at a cybersecurity training, even in your company or other places, even when I teach my dad to use the Internet and he asks about phishing websites or spam email, how do I avoid being scammed? One of the first things that cybersecurity experts will tell you is to look carefully at the domain name and the email address. Who sent the email to you? What domain are you clicking on? If that domain name or email address is in English alphanumeric, then someone who speaks native language may not be able to spot small changes or differences between a spamming and a malware and an abuse. But if the email is from someone they trust in the name of the native language, it is much easier for them to spot the difference and make the right decision. That is why a multilingual Internet makes for a safer Internet. Thank you.

Xiao Zhang: And we go to Yao Jiankang. I want all of you to be brief because I still want to leave some 10 minutes to the Q&A. Oh, okay, thank you.

Yao Jiankang: China has more than 1 billion Internet users. Many of them are not familiar with the English characters. Currently the content of website are Chinese, but many website domain names are ASCII-based. They can not easily remember the English domain names. For example, Tsinghua University. T-S-I-N-G, H-U-A, dot E-D-U, dot C-N, is not easy for Chinese users, but maybe for English speakers. So, if we use Chinese characters, we can easily remember them. Currently, we cannot, many people don’t know ID and E-I, or Chinese email address or Chinese domain names. Or, the system also cannot recognize it. So many companies still do not upgrade their software to support them. So we should do something. So I also respond to the idea that it will be safer for the future Internet, because we can easily recognize domain names. I think it will be familiar, and maybe the local language users can easily use the mother language to untag the phishing. Thank you.

Xiao Zhang: Okay, we’ll go to this theme two. It could say the best practice and successful experience to share. And we have three questions. The first is, what are some successful stories from countries or regions where ID and environment have significantly improved? And second will be, what efforts have been taken? And third will be, what has challenging challenges facing the implementation of IDN? And maybe you can share some experience or some practice from still from the domain.

Audience: Thank you very much for pronouncing my name correctly. Yeah, thank you very much. Actually, we as a government or as a telecom regulator of EGIT, we are working for a successful model or role model. What is the role model we are thinking about? Actually, we need to have a consistent environment. We need to have Arabic domain name for Arabic content website. And the user could subscribe to our mailing list or to this website using his Arabic email address and receive notification using his Arabic email address. It’s a kind of respect, it’s a kind of accountability of the government or the regulator regardless to the citizen. So we started from early beginning for this role model. We make some labs in order to have E-mail address internationalization environment and already make this environment and already make the labs that are written with the support of our colleagues from Pakistan. And these labs already configured well and there are clear steps. And it already tested with a lot of other countries and already tested inside one of the graduation projects that were related to universal acceptance within the cooperation between the government and the computer science universities in Egypt. Actually, this is the first thing that will conduct the AI test environment. And we have a challenge here that at the time we build the environment for AI inside the telecom regulator or the ministry, we found that the security guys claiming that there are some domain names or some email addresses who are not recognized. It is valid email addresses. They have some issues related to the acceptance of such kind of email addresses. It’s one of the challenges. For the government itself, we have a group of Egyptian universities. We open the challenge with them in order to conduct more than university projects by the year in order to increase awareness for academia about. universal acceptance, or AI, or IDNs. And we use an open chain with the master registrar. We went to our registrar and encouraged them in order to make their application to be universal acceptance ready and also have IDN domain name for their application that used for registering Arabic domain name. Also, one of the challenges we face is that most of the time you are going to use Arabic domain name, you go to English content website. It’s an inconsistent environment. It’s one of the challenges. So as a government, we encourage to have more enriching for the content, Arabic content. Also, we increase the awareness. We use IDNs. We are encouraging to use IDNs for the most popular websites. Also, encourages the registrar to be involved in the adoption plan of universal acceptance. Also, assign a governmental organization some IDN domain names that they could use. And if they have any question regarding that, we will give them a consultancy about the technical issues that are related to IDNs, AI, and universal acceptance. So for the last question about the challenging of implementation, I already covered this while I said that we had this BAM engine or firewall couldn’t handle or couldn’t process such kind of email addresses correctly. It’s one of the challenges. We are stable. Why do we need to change? Why we need to pay extra money in order to have new release of email software without there is no asking from customer in order to have this service? This is one of the related issues. Yeah, I think I have to cut here in order to continue for other presenters. Thank you.

Xiao Zhang: Thank you. You want to take a question? Yeah, please, please.

Audience: Fawad Bajwa from Pakistan. I had a question for all of the panelists that, you know, since the past few days with regards to the discussion of IDNs, there has been discussion between, you know, ICANN staff and other stakeholders that IDN adoption, even until now that we’re reaching, you know, the new GTLD round, has been an issue about capacity building and universal acceptance. But that’s the high-level perspective. What I want to know is what can the community do beyond capacity building and UA to help the adoption of IDNs and to make the use case for IDNs more significant for the next GTLD round, even if you can just, you know, tell me anything between one to five steps that can be done to actually make the IDN adoption and the increased use and the business case stronger before the GTLD program opens up again.

Xiao Zhang: Thank you very much. We want to be interactive. And thank you for your contributions. I would like to go to some online panelists, if someone can respond, or we can. Yeah.

Anil Kumar Jain: Let me take up this question. Thank you very much for this important question. There are various efforts which community can undertake for popularizing multilingual internet. The first, I personally feel the most important factor in all of us is the government. So outreach to the government, explaining to them why it is important for delivering their services and having contact with their people, citizens in the country in their own language. I think this is the most important thing. And within ICANN, we have already started the government outreach. The second most important is the biggest interface which people have. with the people is the big techs. For example, Google, Meta, Apple. These are either the browsers and the social media organizations. If they adopt multilingual internet in their strategy and start building and delivering those aspects to the people, I think that is possible. The third important aspect is preparing the capacity building, as you have already said, and bringing out the new graduates with the capability of UA because this encourages the new software developers to think about UA when they are developing the software as a new. So I think it is important. And then as a community, for example, health workers, for example, education workers, for example, agriculture, for example, financial people or for the startups. If there are success stories about adoption of internet, multilingual internet and the results which are coming out of it, this will give a bigger impact on the community to adopt ITN. The last thing which you said is that whether it is possible to have the results before the start of the new GTLD round. The answer is yes or no, both. Because the new GTLD round is expected to come in June 2026. So we have just one and a half year before we have to start and getting the results. But the outcome and the results and the progress of adoption of IDN and EAI are very increasing. And I am very confident that we should be able to deliver it because now the multilingual internet or universal acceptance is not on talking, but it is a reality, and all people who have to use, they have to showcase the results which are coming out of it, and it is easy to use, it is easy to adopt. So I stop it here. Thank you.

Xiao Zhang: And according to the same truth and a successful experience, I’m not sure, Yao Jiankang, and Anil, you two want to say something and we can skip, maybe.

Edmund Chong: I’m happy to add, especially in response to Fawad’s question, and I will challenge you to a few things. Start a grassroots movement. Get people to send an email a day to your ISP, to Gmail, and let them turn on EAI, let them turn on IDN. They actually have the technology already there. Many of the open source software is already IDN ready and EAI ready. Gmail is EAI ready, but they haven’t turned it on fully. Outlook.com is ready for EIA, but they haven’t turned it on. So start a grassroots movement is what I would challenge you to do if you ask me what someone, you know, by yourself or from the ground can actually do. And then also on the government side, I think it’s important to start a roadmap, whether it’s the government or industry. This is a topic that, you know, it needs a small change, but it is a small change to many parts of your system. That’s why Gmail is having problems. That’s why Outlook is having a problem because you may say that email address and domain names, nobody uses so much of it anymore, but you might be wrong because every single system on the internet probably uses domain names and email addresses. Every user system somehow uses email addresses and that’s the long tail problem. And that’s why you need a roadmap. So I would challenge governments and industry to create roadmaps. Don’t try to change. you know, don’t try to say, oh, I’m gonna fix this one year from now and I’ll fix it. You know, I’ll focus my attention nine months from now. That’s not gonna happen. You need to plan for two to three years in order for the roadmap to actually realize. And that’s the reason is it’s a small change, but it’s a small change to every single part of the system. And then lastly, I wanna touch on, you know, the capacity building. And I know you, you know, I think it’s a, you know, it’s too long-term, but it is part of an important thing. And I look at capacity building in two sides. One is, as Anil mentioned, getting to people early when they learn about networking, when they learn about in the university, they already learn about IDNs and UA, but the other side is also important. When we build new infrastructure, you know, like in China, when we talk about the digital Silk Road or the Belt and Road Initiative, the Asian Development Bank, when they look at new infrastructure, it should be UA by design. It should not be an add-on. It should not, you know, IDNs and UA should not be a second-class citizen. It should be a, you know, it’s fully integrated from the very beginning of deployment. And when you think about capacity building in that way, we can see the end. We can see the end game in the sense that once those infrastructure is in place, they should already be UA-ready. And that’s the other side of capacity building. I think that’s important to advocate.

Xiao Zhang: Okay, and Yao Jiankang, would you add something?

Yao Jiankang: Okay, okay, thank you. I love Anil’s comments. Not talking, UA is in reality, but we should, everyone should do something. Every multistakeholder should do something. Government should issue some policy to help EI and IDN. Users should tell your company to support EI and IDN. The companies should upgrade their system to support the idea. So on the EI, so everyone should do something, then we get a success. Thank you.

Xiao Zhang: Okay. It seems that we are very smooth and we move to the third, the last thing, any innovation to think about for the next 10 years? And we have actually three questions. One is, what role can governments, tech communities, and civil society play in ensuring those adoptions as a stakeholder’s role? And especially a second one, how governments can be motivated to promote IDM-based websites and local contents? And third one is, how could CCTLDs help to get the next billion internet users online? So I think it’s quite something, also can respond to the question. So you please, Abdullahi.

Audience: Very much. Actually, my brother said that question early enough in advance enough in order to be answered. So I will be happy to answer from the perspective of the government. Actually the role of the government, the government have many roles. The first one to encourage non-Latin content to be available for local communities, encourage registrar to publish and market their IDN names for sure and adopt universal acceptance for their systems, open a channel with governmental affiliated organization and encourage them to use IDN for their online services offered for the customers, encourage software companies in order to mandate universal acceptance as a requirement for the new software and develop a new batch for the current used software in order to make it UA ready, make a repository of the email server software or service software in order to have these brands and make a channel with the provider or the vendor for this product in order to ask them that there is a need. for IDN and EI and universal acceptance so they shall make new versions or even new batches in order to be universal acceptance ready. Increase awareness of the different levels, claiming that there is a need of IDN use and IDN, especially for businesses, as we need to declare that there is a huge business behind the adoption of IDN and EI and universal acceptance. And also mandate IDN use and EI certification in the procurement policies, this is some of the snapshot of the goals of the government. I think I have to stop here as I have a lot to say, maybe one hour ahead. Go ahead, please.

Xiao Zhang: And I would like to begin with the biggest CCTLD, maybe Yao Jiankang, you can continue.

Yao Jiankang: Okay, thank you. So DaoXian is the biggest registry for CCTLD. So I think we sell IDN names, currently maybe we only sell IDN names, but users didn’t know what is IDN, so we should tell them how to use IDN. So many CCTLDs sell IDN, so we should have some guidebooks to help users know IDN, how to configure IDN, how to configure EI. So this is a bigger problem. Maybe we sell not only the IDN, but sell the whole system, whole guidebook, tell them the knowledge of the IDN and EI, so we should do more. Thank you.

Xiao Zhang: Thank you.

Edmund Chong: Yeah, so earlier we talked about the new GTLD program. I think in the next 10 years, that’s going to be an important part in the roadmap. With new GTLDs, with new IDN TLDs, I think that’s going to be important. Coming back to the government side and the policy side of things, it was mentioned and I always agree that the government procurement system is important, but we should look at it also kind of like a carrot and a stick. When you think about policy, it’s always important to have both carrot and stick. Carrot side of things is incentives. I think incentives are important and it’s not just governments. In fact, on this particular issue, I think that ICANN can do something as well. Even today, I understand that many of the GTLD platforms are not fully UA ready. Yes, it might be able to take in IDN registrations, but what about email addresses? What about international email addresses and contact information for domain registration? That may not be ready, but incentives could be possible. Even if ICANN lower the fees, for example, it’s slicing the… And it creates an awareness from, you know, from the ground up as well. If you look at the internet, it started from universities. It started from these type of semi-open network. Maybe this is the way to go. And if you think about policies, that’s, I think, the direction that can probably make a huge difference in the next few years.

Xiao Zhang: Thank you. And you.

Anil Kumar Jain: Thank you. Let me start first with an example of the government ccTLD.in and .bharat in India. So there are several efforts by the government because they are delegating the ccTLD. The first is that they have bundled .bharat, which is an IDN ccTLD, with .in. It means that whenever anybody is purchasing .in, .bharat is free. Second, with every .bharat delegation, there is a free EAI, which is given to the consumer. So consumer is getting aware about it. They are using it. And third, the cost of .bharat is lower than .in. So it encourages more and more people to use it. The government of India is now, in addition, what Edmund is saying, that yes, government of India is pushing through the procurement portal to ensure that more and more vendors are UA ready and when they are connected with the government purchases. But at the same time, government is pushing that all their websites, which are public interface, should be UA ready. And there is a great success, which they are able to get it. Now, I want to give one success story in this. Although there is one program which government has started called Mera Desh Meri Darwar, where we have 600,000 villages in the country. And we are building up a cultural portals about every village. So we are program. of having a delegation of 600,000 second-level IDN domains, one for every village. And we are building four websites, which is a UARED website. One more success story I want to say that there is a big state in India called Rajasthan, which has adopted a program called Rail Mail, Raj Mail. And we have built up a system which support 20 million local emails through Raj Mail in Hindi. And Rajasthan, people are using for electricity bill. People are using contacting police. And it is very interesting that all emails which are given to the citizen by government of Rajasthan are absolutely free of cost to ensure that everybody is able to adopt it. So these are wonderful results which have come out from the government efforts. And I support Edmund saying that government should push the academia so that students at the early stage, they are well aware, educated about UA. And they should be, when they graduate themselves, they become a potential UA motivators and ambassadors for multilingual internet. Thank you.

Xiao Zhang: Thank you. Online, I saw Xianhong raise her hand. Xianhong, your turn.

Xianhong Hu: Thank you. I would just like to share what I just heard that several speakers well set out that how government’s role is so crucial in advancing universal acceptance. Because I’ve been working with other governments. I’m wondering why. Idea has been there for decades. Why is progress so slow? And why still now? I mean, from 15 years ago, I heard about this. But now still we’re not. talking about universal acceptance, why still so many governments didn’t really in the game? So really, perhaps the incentive for the governments on promoting multilingualism need to be refreshed and also maybe to connect the UA, connect the idea with a bigger picture like a digital inclusion, like digital divide, et cetera, to make a more comprehensive strategy for the government to deal with. Because I know that in many countries, they might not have a strategy on this domain name particularly, but they are coming up with a national strategy on digital transformation, digital inclusion. And maybe that’s a place where we should really start to engage, to intervene, to introduce, to flag the issues of universal acceptance, to flag the idea, also to flag the multilingualism as a bigger concept to implement. And on the other side also, I’m quite inspired by everybody saying about for the future. I mean, the lack of multilingual content and access and connectivity in the cyberspace is already impacting the digital futures, which won’t be anything of inclusive and multilingual. If you look at the development of generative AI, the generative AI large language models, they are mostly based on the internet content, data they collect from social media and which are not multilingual. That’s why even when you ask an app such as a chat GPT, ask a question in your local language, for example, ask in Arabic, it’s also so much spoken language. You can get the answer in Arabic, but if you look at the perspective, the positions, the aspects, they are still very English. That’s a more deeper linguistic divide and bias this multilingual Internet is going to lead to. So that’s also what I’m concerned that with the lack of multilingualism in cyberspace, we are getting a lack of multilingual AI automated decision-making process and all the other outputs. That can be a huge challenge for our future because it’s not just about knowledge, it’s also about justice. I mean, imagine that the courts’ decision on recruitment and many other social decisions are being driven by the AI models and the algorithm, but which are fed by a very biased, by certain dominant language knowledge and data. So it’s also quite a danger for the future. Last point I would like to share that I also like to respond about the international decade of indigenous language and also the new concept I heard about linguistic justice. Thank you. I think it’s a brilliant concept I learned today. For me, justice or language means maybe a more comprehensive strategy because as I said, in the world, we have 7,000, more than 7,500 languages and 3,400 of them, they are in danger. Basically very few people speak about them. That’s what’s the decade and most of them, they are from the indigenous group, the indigenous languages are not even native or national language. That’s what the decade is. it’s working to preserve those languages. But for the other languages, as you well said, even so much spoken Arabic, Chinese, and Portuguese, Spanish, they are also very, very absent from cyberspace. So that’s another big issue with equal address. Plus, in the future, with governments, again, for national strategy, again, you should consider all the different languages at a different stage and need different interventions. I think time is up, so I stop here. Thank you.

Xiao Zhang: Yes, thank you. And we have five minutes left, and I see two hands raise up, and I need you to be brief. Yao Jiankang, please, your turn.

Yao Jiankang: Okay, thank you. So Chinese government, MIT, has issued a lot of policy to promote IDEA and EI. I also have a suggestion to Xianhong, so maybe United Nations use Chinese domain names, French domain names, Chinese email address, French email address. So if this is a promotion of IDEA and EI, so this is my suggestion. So if you adopt EI and IDEA, this is a bigger step forward to multi-language internet. Thank you.

Xiao Zhang: Thank you. And Edmund.

Edmund Chong: Yeah, so very quickly, I second Jiankang’s suggestion. And in fact, in the last few years while I was on the ICANN board, I pushed for my Chinese name to be on an ICANN email address. I’m almost there. They’re almost ready, but not quite ready. But I think the roadmap is important. I just put my hand up to add to what Xianhong mentioned. Actually, also as part of my work on the ICANN board, I was able to push forward a… an MOU with the UNESCO to push forward both the UA Day and also information to governments. So I understand that the team is working very closely with the UNESCO team to provide information packages to different governments and to have them participate in future UA Days. But even more important is one thing that I think is the index. There is a measure of how ready each different jurisdictions is. And from the ICANN team, we have been working with UNESCO so that different countries can report back on their UA readiness and their adoption of IDNs. And I think that is really going to move the needle and make a difference.

Xiao Zhang: Thank you. I see my colleague online. Would you like to say something? We have only a few minutes left.

Anil Kumar Jain: Thank you. I just want to give one sentence, you know, at the end is that I think push from the consumer and consumer may be a critical aspect in getting the UA ready. For example, I, as an internet user, social media, maybe Facebook, that my content and my report should be should be acceptable in Hindi. Or I push Google that my browser, if I’m typing in Hindi, I should be able to go to the right website. I think this kind of pushing from the consumer may bring a lot of results. Thank you.

Xiao Zhang: Thank you, Anil. Just saw your hand. And anybody else? We have only a couple minutes left. Wala?

Xianhong Hu: If I can add one small thought, because… Brief, I’m sorry. I think a multilingualism can also… internet, not only say, but trust was it because that is such a lack of trust on internet. So much disinformation, fake news. Imagine if all the news information source available in all the local language, if we do the fact-checking, how easy would that be? Thank you.

Xiao Zhang: And I think we’re going to run out of time. And thank you, every panelist. I think it’s really very good discussion because we have interaction and we are responding to questions. And I hope that we can continue the dialogue in the future. And especially I think all the we are in the same field. And each language is beautiful. And we hope actually one day we can serve the internet with our own language. Thank you all. And I propose a group picture. Shall we just just sit here and sit home together. We’re just here. Maybe we can, something like that.

Agreement Points

Importance of multilingualism for digital inclusion

Carol Roach

Anil Kumar Jain

Xianhong Hu

Abdel-Monet Ghalia

Edmund Chong

Language barriers exclude billions from digital society

Over 60% of world population doesn’t converse in English

Multilingualism promotes diversity and inclusion online

IDNs and EAI allow users to access internet in native languages

Multilingual internet is about choice and language justice

All speakers agree that multilingualism is crucial for digital inclusion, allowing non-English speakers to fully participate in the digital world.

Need for government involvement in promoting IDNs and UA

Anil Kumar Jain

Abdel-Monet Ghalia

Edmund Chong

Government policies and procurement requirements for UA

Governments should encourage non-Latin content and IDN use

Roadmaps for government and industry implementation

Speakers agree that government involvement through policies, procurement requirements, and roadmaps is crucial for promoting IDNs and Universal Acceptance.

Similar Viewpoints

Both speakers highlight the technical challenges in implementing IDNs and EAI, particularly the lack of readiness in existing systems and software.

Anil Kumar Jain

Abdel-Monet Ghalia

Many systems and websites not yet UA-ready

Limited readiness of email servers and software for IDNs/EAI

Both speakers suggest that large organizations and user movements can play a crucial role in promoting IDN adoption by leading by example or applying pressure.

Edmund Chong

Yao Jiankang

Grassroots movement to pressure email/tech providers

UN agencies could lead by example in using IDNs

Unexpected Consensus

Multilingualism enhancing internet security

Edmund Chong

Xianhong Hu

Multilingual internet is about choice and language justice

Multilingualism promotes diversity and inclusion online

While not explicitly stated in their main arguments, both speakers touched on the idea that a multilingual internet could enhance security by making it easier for users to identify legitimate content in their native languages, which is an unexpected connection between multilingualism and cybersecurity.

Overall Assessment

Summary

There is strong agreement on the importance of multilingualism for digital inclusion, the need for government involvement in promoting IDNs and UA, and the technical challenges in implementing these technologies. Speakers also agree on the role of various stakeholders in driving adoption.

Consensus level

High level of consensus among speakers, implying a unified understanding of the challenges and potential solutions for implementing IDNs and Universal Acceptance. This consensus suggests that coordinated efforts across different sectors (government, industry, academia, and user communities) could significantly advance the adoption of multilingual internet technologies.

Different Viewpoints

Approach to promoting IDN adoption

Anil Kumar Jain

Edmund Chong

Government policies and procurement requirements for UA

Grassroots movement to pressure email/tech providers

Anil Kumar Jain emphasizes top-down government policies to promote UA, while Edmund Chong suggests a bottom-up grassroots approach to pressure providers.

Unexpected Differences

Overall Assessment

summary

The main areas of disagreement revolve around the specific strategies for promoting IDN adoption and the role of different stakeholders in this process.

difference_level

The level of disagreement among speakers is relatively low. Most speakers agree on the importance of multilingualism in internet access and the need for IDN adoption. The differences mainly lie in the approaches and emphasis on various strategies, which could actually be complementary rather than conflicting. This low level of disagreement suggests a generally unified direction in addressing the challenges of implementing IDNs and Universal Acceptance, which is positive for advancing the topic.

Partial Agreements

All speakers agree on the importance of government involvement in promoting IDNs and UA, but differ on specific strategies and timelines for implementation.

Anil Kumar Jain

Edmund Chong

Abdel-Monet Ghalia

Government policies and procurement requirements for UA

Roadmaps for government and industry implementation

Governments should encourage non-Latin content and IDN use

Similar Viewpoints

Both speakers highlight the technical challenges in implementing IDNs and EAI, particularly the lack of readiness in existing systems and software.

Anil Kumar Jain

Abdel-Monet Ghalia

Many systems and websites not yet UA-ready

Limited readiness of email servers and software for IDNs/EAI

Both speakers suggest that large organizations and user movements can play a crucial role in promoting IDN adoption by leading by example or applying pressure.

Edmund Chong

Yao Jiankang

Grassroots movement to pressure email/tech providers

UN agencies could lead by example in using IDNs

Key Takeaways

Multilingualism is essential for an inclusive internet, as language barriers currently exclude billions from the digital society

Internationalized Domain Names (IDNs) and Email Address Internationalization (EAI) are crucial for allowing users to access the internet in their native languages

Universal Acceptance (UA) of IDNs and EAI faces challenges including lack of awareness, limited software readiness, and security concerns

A multilingual internet promotes diversity, language justice, and potentially improves online safety

Government policies, grassroots movements, and industry roadmaps are key strategies for promoting IDN and UA adoption

Multiple stakeholders including governments, tech companies, CCTLDs, academia, and consumers all have important roles to play in advancing multilingual internet use

Resolutions and Action Items

Push for government procurement policies to require UA-readiness

Create roadmaps for government and industry implementation of IDNs and UA

Develop guidebooks to help users understand and configure IDNs and EAI

Integrate IDNs and UA into academic curricula to educate future developers

Encourage UN agencies and international organizations to lead by example in using IDNs

Launch grassroots campaigns to pressure email and tech providers to support IDNs and EAI

Unresolved Issues

How to accelerate the slow progress of IDN and UA adoption despite years of effort

How to address the deeper linguistic divide in AI and automated decision-making processes

How to preserve and promote use of endangered and indigenous languages online

How to increase the amount of non-English content available online, particularly for widely-spoken languages like Arabic and Chinese

Suggested Compromises

Bundling IDN domains with existing TLD registrations to encourage adoption

Offering free IDN email addresses with domain registrations

Lowering fees for UA-ready gTLD platforms to incentivize compliance

Creating a UA readiness index for countries to measure and compare progress

Without multilingualism, not everyone can say my internet. For a vast number of persons, the internet we want means representation to them in their own language.

speaker

Carol Roach

reason

This comment frames multilingualism as a fundamental issue of representation and inclusion, setting the tone for the entire discussion.

impact

It established the importance of the topic and led to further exploration of why multilingualism matters for internet access and participation.

We perceive a huge linguistic divide. You know, at ITF, we heard so much concern about the divide, but I feel we need more awareness about how linguistic divide has been deepening with the faster development of technology.

speaker

Xianhong Hu

reason

This insight highlights how technological progress can exacerbate language divides, adding urgency to the discussion.

impact

It shifted the conversation to focus on the growing challenges of linguistic divides in the digital age and the need for proactive solutions.

When you are going to an ATM machine, you have Arabic or English or Chinese or Arabic or English. If I am Arabic, I select Arabic. I will not go for English.

speaker

Abdel-Monet Ghalia

reason

This practical example illustrates why language choice matters in everyday digital interactions.

impact

It grounded the discussion in relatable experiences, making the importance of multilingualism more tangible for participants.

So to say that just a, you know, homogenous world of English alphanumeric domain names and email address is enough is really not the right thing. This is the decade not only to save the indigenous language, but also to make sure that IDNs and the digital world can embrace fully the multilingual internet.

speaker

Edmund Chong

reason

This comment challenges the status quo and frames multilingualism as a matter of language justice and preservation.

impact

It elevated the discussion from technical considerations to broader social and cultural implications, encouraging participants to think more holistically about the issue.

Start a grassroots movement. Get people to send an email a day to your ISP, to Gmail, and let them turn on EAI, let them turn on IDN. They actually have the technology already there.

speaker

Edmund Chong

reason

This suggestion provides a concrete, actionable step for promoting multilingualism online.

impact

It shifted the discussion from theoretical concerns to practical solutions, encouraging participants to think about how to drive change at multiple levels.

If you look at the development of generative AI, the generative AI large language models, they are mostly based on the internet content, data they collect from social media and which are not multilingual. That’s why even when you ask an app such as a chat GPT, ask a question in your local language, for example, ask in Arabic, it’s also so much spoken language. You can get the answer in Arabic, but if you look at the perspective, the positions, the aspects, they are still very English.

speaker

Xianhong Hu

reason

This insight connects the issue of multilingualism to emerging AI technologies, highlighting potential long-term consequences of language biases.

impact

It broadened the scope of the discussion to include future technological developments and their potential impacts on linguistic diversity and representation.

Overall Assessment

These key comments shaped the discussion by progressively expanding its scope from basic issues of internet access to broader concerns about cultural representation, technological development, and social justice. They helped to frame multilingualism not just as a technical challenge, but as a fundamental aspect of digital inclusion and equity. The comments also moved the conversation from identifying problems to proposing solutions, encouraging both high-level policy changes and grassroots actions. Overall, these insights deepened the complexity of the discussion and highlighted the multifaceted nature of linguistic diversity in the digital age.

How can we create a grassroots movement to encourage adoption of IDNs and EAI?

speaker

Edmund Chong

explanation

This could help put pressure on major tech companies and ISPs to fully implement IDN and EAI support in their systems.

How can governments and industry create effective roadmaps for implementing IDN and UA support across all systems?

speaker

Edmund Chong

explanation

Long-term planning is necessary due to the widespread but small changes required across many systems.

How can we ensure new digital infrastructure projects are ‘UA by design’ from the beginning?

speaker

Edmund Chong

explanation

This would help integrate IDN and UA support from the start rather than as an afterthought.

Why has progress on IDN adoption been so slow over the past decades, particularly among governments?

speaker

Xianhong Hu

explanation

Understanding the barriers to adoption could help develop more effective strategies for implementation.

How can we better connect IDN and UA initiatives with broader digital inclusion and transformation strategies?

speaker

Xianhong Hu

explanation

This could help increase government engagement and prioritization of these issues.

What are the long-term implications of linguistic bias in AI and automated decision-making systems due to lack of multilingual internet content?

speaker

Xianhong Hu

explanation

This could have significant impacts on fairness and justice in AI-driven processes.

How can international organizations like the UN promote IDN and EAI adoption by using them in their own systems?

speaker

Yao Jiankang

explanation

This could serve as a powerful example and encourage wider adoption.

How can we leverage consumer demand to push for better IDN and UA support from major tech companies and platforms?

speaker

Anil Kumar Jain

explanation

Consumer pressure could be a critical factor in driving adoption of these technologies.