IGF 2026 WS #68 A Multilingual Internet by Advancing Universal Acceptance

Description

Full title: Enabling A Multilingual Internet by Advancing Universal Acceptance, and How AI can Contribute Digital technologies benefit society by enabling users to participate in the economy, to learn, connect, and communicate online. For global communities to participate online, the Internet must be accessible in all local languages and scripts. Yet today, millions of people remain unable to use web addresses or email addresses in their own languages or scripts. These languages and scripts are well-supported by technical standards and are technically feasible to implement, but many applications and websites have not been updated to fully support them, preventing these capabilities from reaching users. This is due to missing technical support for Universal Acceptance (UA), a state in which all valid domain names and email addresses are accepted, validated, stored, processed, and displayed correctly and consistently by Internet-enabled applications, devices, and systems.

Despite significant progress, many technology providers have not upgraded their systems, due to lack of awareness, limitations in capacity, or lack of prioritization. All stakeholders need to contribute to promote UA adoption. ICANN collaborates with UNESCO, the ITU and the broader Internet community to raise awareness for the need of UA, and working with technical organizations and universities around the world to build capacity. Engaging Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools can further contribute towards addressing technical barriers and capacity challenges. By using domain names and email addresses to publish local content and communicate online, civil society and end-users can create the necessary awareness and demand.

The session will bring experts from these different stakeholders to discuss how the Internet can be made more multilingual by addressing UA challenges, what has already been achieved and what needs to be done. The session will highlight how AI tools can facilitate UA adoption by updating applications and systems to become UA-ready.

Policy Question(s)

What strategies, policies and incentives should stakeholders use to encourage technology providers and software developers to implement Universal Acceptance in their systems, applications (including email), devices and software?
How can AI tools be leveraged effectively to facilitate UA adoption? What are key considerations to ensuring AI tools enable Universal Acceptance for a wide range of languages and scripts online?
How can civil society organizations, local communities, International Organizations and other stakeholders stimulate demand for Universal Acceptance of domain names and email addresses?

Expected Outcomes

Stakeholders, including civil society, will understand the technical barriers of Universal Acceptance (UA) and why it is a requirement for enabling a multilingual Internet for promoting digital inclusion.
Stakeholders understand their role in UA adoption and how to contribute to the work and discussions.
Stakeholders understand how to innovate using AI tools to make software applications and systems UA-ready.
Inform how the IGF community and intersessional processes can contribute to UA adoption and solutions.

Reference Document

Format

Roundtable Duration (minutes): 60 Format description: The session will include a panel from different stakeholders, including tech organizations, public sector, academia and civil society, which will help introduce the different aspects of the challenges and opportunities in 30 minutes. For the second half, the session will engage the audience in a discussion to share their view point on additional mechanisms which can be put in action to address the challenge of addressing Universal Acceptance for a more multilingual Internet. The roundtable format will facilitate the audience to engage in the session and share their input as participants in the discussion and not just listeners.

Hybrid Format

Hybrid Format: ICANN has a proven track record of organizing large-scale hybrid meetings that foster inclusive, multilingual, and globally diverse participation. The session will be supported by both an onsite moderator and a dedicated online moderator to ensure equitable participation from in-person and virtual attendees. The online moderator will monitor Zoom chat, Q&A, and raised hands, integrating questions and comments from remote participants throughout the discussion rather than only at the end. The session is designed to encourage real-time interaction, with balanced opportunities for engagement from both audiences and speakers responding to questions from onsite and online participants throughout. Zoom will support remote participation and interaction, while ICANN and UNESCO communications teams will extend the conversation through X and LinkedIn, encouraging broader engagement before, during, and after the session.

Organizers

Organizer 1: Adam Peake, ICANN Organizer 2: Rebecca McGilley, 🔒ICANN

Speakers

Speaker 1: Sathees Babu Chellikattuveli Sivanandan, Civil Society, Asia-Pacific Group Speaker 2: Sarmad Hussain, Technical Community, Asia-Pacific Group Speaker 3: Theresa Swinehart, Technical Community, Western European and Others Group (WEOG) Speaker 4: Xianhong Hu, Intergovernmental Organization, Western European and Others Group (WEOG)

Moderator

Theresa Swinehart, Technical Community, Western European and Others Group (WEOG)

Online Moderator

Adam Peake, Technical Community, Western European and Others Group (WEOG)

Rapporteur

Zacharias Dimitris, Technical Community, Western European and Others Group (WEOG)

Participant Benefits

What will participants gain from attending this session?

SDGs

9.1 9.c 16.10 17.6

5.8 KiB Raw Blame History