News
EU Policy Update - February 2020
In a nutshell: The European Commission published its digital strategy, data strategy and White Paper on Artificial Intelligence, and plans to open a public consultation on priorities in cybersecurity certification. Digital Commissioner Breton voiced the need for a 'stay-down' duty, in addition to content takedowns by online intermediaries. Germany will focus on online hate speech during its presidency in the Council of the EU in the second half of 2020. The European Parliament is in a hurry to issue its three own-initiative reports on the Digital Services Act, with the Rapporteur for the Legal Affairs committee calling to re-focus the debate on a "follow the money" approach. The EDPB has provided guidance on the applicability of the GDPR to unfair algorithms.
CENTR publishes its Guide to ICANN67
CENTR just published its Guide to ICANN67, which will take place remotely due to the outbreak of COVID-19 from 7-12 March 2020. The Guide covers key topics of interest in this virtual meeting.
Registration standardised metric definitions – German translation added
The Registry-Registrar Data Group (or RRDG) has added German translations for its standardised definitions of common domain registration terms. Find the translations alongside the English version here. If you would like to see other languages added, please This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..
CENTR elects three new members to its Board of Directors
CENTR is delighted to announce that last week, during its 63rd General Assembly in Ljubljana, members elected three new members to the CENTR Board of Directors: Barbara Povše (Register.si), Philip Du Bois (DNS Belgium) and David Fowler (CIRA). They join Danny Aerts (Internetstiftelsen) and Hilde Thunem (Norid) who were elected on 22 March 2019. Barbara was also elected Chair of the Board.
EU Policy Update - January 2020
In a nutshell: Croatia took over the presidency in the Council of the EU from 1 January 2020. The European Commission's 2020 Work Programme identifies which legislative and policy initiatives the Commission plans to put forward in the course of 2020, including the new consumer agenda and the review of the NIS Directive. Commissioner Reynders urges the European Parliament to advance on e-Evidence. Three European Parliament committees received competence for own-initiative reports on the Digital Services Act. Europol released the EU Digital Evidence Situation Report. The European Court of Justice ruled on Airbnb being an "information society service". The ECJ Advocate-General stated that the ePrivacy Directive excludes the general and indiscriminate retention of personal data obligation.
CENTR publishes its CENTRstats Global TLD Report Q3/2019
The CENTRstats Global TLD Report Q3/2019 has been published. The report covers the global status and registration trends in all top-level domains (legacy gTLDs, new gTLDs and ccTLDs), with additional focus on the European ccTLD market. The pdf version of the report can be found here.
EU Policy Update - Wrapping up 2019
In a nutshell: At the end of 2019, the EU has a new European Commission, including a Commissioner for the Internal Market with an ambitious portfolio overseeing digital files, defence and space. One of the hot topics under discussion for the current legislative term, with intensified debates expected in 2020, is the Digital Services Act. The European Commission is looking into whether the new legislation that will revise the online intermediary landscape should encompass the DNS level. The e-Evidence package is advancing through the European Parliament, with the rapporteur issuing a long-awaited Draft Report on the file. More than 800 amendments were issued by the responsible Parliamentary committee on the legislative proposal, indicating that discussions on the role and responsibilities of service providers when issuing and preserving electronic evidence to foreign law enforcement authorities are far from over. On the seemingly less controversial topic of cybersecurity, the Commission is looking for ideas of potential cybersecurity certification areas under the EU Cybersecurity Act and the envisaged schemes within. One potential contender for future coordinated EU standardisation work in the area of security is 5G, as assessed by the EU cybersecurity agency, ENISA. Meanwhile, Member States are no less occupied with the topic of security, especially in the context of so-called hybrid threats when it comes to the critical infrastructure. The Council of the EU asks the Commission to evaluate the need for a possible legislative revision of the existing legal framework on critical infrastructures (but not NIS).
New integrated TLD dashboard on CENTRstats
The TLD dashboard has been upgraded!
CENTR publishes its Report on IETF106
CENTR has just published its Report on IETF106, which took place in Singapore from 16-22 November 2019.
Reinvigorated IGF discusses the existential threats to the internet
Blog post by Polina Malaja and Peter Van Roste, CENTR - Last week, thousands of participants gathered in Berlin for the annual global Internet Governance Forum.