Barcelona, the first city outside the US to host ICANN's meeting on global internet governance

BarcelonaBarcelona will host the annual Strategic Planning Session (SPS) of ICANN's GNSO Council this Tuesday and Wednesday, January 20 and 21, a key meeting for global internet governance. This will be the first time in history that this meeting has been held outside the United States, a significant milestone for Catalonia and for Accent Obert, the domain management entity. .catwhich will be the host organization. Furthermore, the organization asserts that holding the event outside the US for the first time reflects ICANN's desire to "decentralize the debate on internet governance and better reflect its global dimension," they point out.

In addition, given the current geopolitical tension stemming from the policies of US President Donald Trump, this decision to hold the event outside the US also responds to the increasing difficulties in guaranteeing entry into the United States for all members of the Council, "which led Accent Obert to propose the GNSO and for it to hold the event in Barcelona." "With this meeting, the domain .cat "It reinforces its position as a relevant player in the strategic debates that define the future of the domain name system and the internet as a whole," they point out.

A key meeting

The GNSO (Generic Names Supporting Organization) is one of the core bodies of ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers), an international non-profit organization that coordinates the basic functioning of the internet on a global scale. Among other functions, it is responsible for ensuring that domain names—that is, web addresses—function correctly and are unique worldwide. The GNSO is also responsible for defining and recommending policies that regulate generic top-level domains (gTLDs), such as .com,.org, .info or the new gTLDs.

"The decisions discussed at this meeting have a direct impact on an essential part of the economic, social, and institutional activity of the internet globally," says Accent Obert. The Strategic Planning Session (SPS) is an intensive working meeting of the GNSO Council, conceived as a space for strategic reflection on its role, priorities, and operation in the medium and long term. Unlike other ICANN meetings, the SPS does not focus on the development of specific policies, but rather on how new domains are created, how brands are protected online, how conflicts between domain names are resolved, and how data associated with domains is managed.