ICANN opens its doors for new top level domains

The Internet's governing body on Thursday started accepting applications for new generic top-level domains (gTLDs). Not everyone is pleased with the new domain program. Members of Congress and officials from the Federal Trade Commission and Commerce Department, however, are concerned that there is too much uncertainty surrounding the process. They asked ICANN to delay the start of this application process, but ICANN declined.

"A rapid, exponential expansion of gTLDs has the potential to magnify both the abuse of the domain name system and the corresponding challenges we encounter in tracking down Internet fraudsters," warned the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) in December.

"We carefully reviewed every critical aspect. Each executive was called on to indicate whether his or her group is fully prepared to fulfill their role in supporting the program. While we noted the ongoing presence of risks that were identified and highlighted to the Board and community in June, and the mitigation steps that have been taken, each executive indicated approval to proceed," said ICANN CEO, Rod Beckstrom.

"As a result, Chief Operating Officer Akram Atallah and Michael Salazar gave me the green light to move forward."

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