Digital Inclusion and TLD Policy for Emerging Scripts

The Domain Name System (DNS), as the backbone of the internet’s naming infrastructure, was originally developed in a context dominated by the Latin script and the English language. While this served the early internet well within a limited geographical and linguistic scope, it gradually revealed profound barriers to access for non-Latin script users across the globe. The introduction of Internationalized Domain Names (IDNs) represented a critical milestone in enabling digital inclusion for speakers of languages that use scripts such as Arabic, Cyrillic, Devanagari, Thai, and others. However, for many communities, especially those whose scripts are under-resourced or whose linguistic groups are marginalized, inclusion in TLD policy remains an evolving and unfinished goal. Developing equitable and functional TLD policies for emerging scripts is not just a matter of linguistic representation—it is a question of digital equity, cultural preservation, and internet universality.

ICANN’s decision in 2010 to allow top-level domains in non-Latin scripts was a foundational moment in the IDN movement. For the first time, users could register domains entirely in their native script, including the TLD, enabling experiences more aligned with their linguistic and cultural context. However, the path to implementing IDNs at the TLD level revealed deep technical and policy complexities. Scripts vary in character structure, directionality, ligature behavior, and rendering rules. For instance, Arabic is written right-to-left, while Devanagari and Thai involve complex combining characters. These challenges required new standards and validation mechanisms to ensure that domain names in these scripts function correctly and securely across diverse software environments.

From a governance perspective, ICANN established the IDN Program to address these needs, working closely with the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF), the Unicode Consortium, and community-based script generation panels. These panels—composed of language and script experts—develop Label Generation Rules (LGRs) that define the allowable code points, variant characters, and restrictions for each script. The LGRs serve as the foundation for both root-level and second-level domain name policies. However, the development of these LGRs has been uneven across scripts. While some scripts like Chinese, Cyrillic, and Arabic benefited from early attention and extensive community input, many emerging or minority scripts remain in the early stages of this process, hindered by lack of local technical expertise, institutional support, or linguistic data.

This disparity in policy readiness translates into real-world exclusion. For speakers of underrepresented languages, the inability to use their script for domain registration—especially at the TLD level—means that the internet remains partially inaccessible or linguistically alien. This digital exclusion reinforces existing inequalities in access to information, economic opportunity, and civic participation. The issue is particularly acute in multilingual countries where official languages may be represented in the DNS, but indigenous or minority scripts are not. For example, while India has made strides with IDNs in Hindi and Tamil, many scripts used by tribal communities or smaller linguistic groups remain unsupported. The same is true in parts of Africa and Southeast Asia, where hundreds of languages are spoken but few are represented in domain name policy or infrastructure.

One key area of policy debate concerns the management of IDN variants. Many scripts contain characters that are visually or semantically similar, which can result in variant domain names that users may perceive as equivalent. For instance, the Arabic script includes letters that are indistinguishable from Persian in certain fonts, and Chinese characters may have simplified and traditional forms. ICANN’s policy approach has been to develop “variant sets” that allow for the recognition of equivalent domains while preventing security threats such as phishing or user confusion. However, balancing usability, trademark protection, and technical feasibility in variant management is a policy challenge. It requires not only linguistic precision but also an understanding of user behavior and cultural context. Emerging scripts, for which such variant analysis is limited or unstructured, are particularly vulnerable to delays and inconsistencies in policy application.

Another layer of complexity arises in the application and delegation process for IDN TLDs. Applying for a new gTLD in an emerging script requires significant financial, technical, and administrative resources—often beyond the capacity of local language communities or civil society organizations. The absence of robust support structures means that global TLDs in emerging scripts are more likely to be controlled by large corporations or state-backed registries, rather than by the communities they are meant to serve. This can lead to misalignment between the governance of the TLD and the linguistic, cultural, or economic needs of its user base. ICANN’s Applicant Support Program, intended to help underserved regions participate in new gTLD rounds, has had limited reach and effectiveness to date, and its future reforms must account specifically for script and language diversity.

Digital inclusion through TLD policy also implicates software compatibility and user awareness. Even when IDN TLDs are technically available, they may not be fully supported by browsers, email systems, or search engines, especially for rare or new scripts. This technical gap undermines user trust and adoption. Furthermore, lack of local awareness campaigns means that many potential users are unaware that domain names are even available in their script. These are not merely technical implementation problems; they are symptoms of policy inattention to linguistic equity. Policies governing TLD rollout and support must integrate outreach, education, and technical capacity-building in target communities to realize the full benefits of IDNs.

As the next round of gTLD applications approaches, ICANN has an opportunity—and a responsibility—to prioritize digital inclusion by supporting emerging scripts through proactive policy measures. These may include expanding the reach and funding of the IDN Program, accelerating the development of LGRs for unserved scripts, offering greater applicant support tailored to linguistic communities, and ensuring that universal acceptance initiatives explicitly include testing and outreach for rare scripts. More fundamentally, ICANN’s multistakeholder model must reflect linguistic diversity not only in policy documents but also in its working groups, fellowship programs, and regional engagement strategies.

In conclusion, the evolution of TLD policy to include emerging scripts is a defining challenge for the future of a truly global and inclusive internet. While significant progress has been made through the IDN framework and script community collaborations, much work remains to be done to ensure that all linguistic groups—not just those with economic or geopolitical weight—can participate fully in the DNS. TLD governance must evolve to prioritize digital inclusion not as a peripheral benefit but as a central objective, ensuring that every user, regardless of script or language, can find a place online that reflects and respects their identity.

The Domain Name System (DNS), as the backbone of the internet’s naming infrastructure, was originally developed in a context dominated by the Latin script and the English language. While this served the early internet well within a limited geographical and linguistic scope, it gradually revealed profound barriers to access for non-Latin script users across the…