Internet Socity NGO

UA Day-2024 “The journey towards a multilingual Internet”

During the Universal Acceptance Day 2024 conference, hosted in Serbia this year, Armenia was represented by Anna Karakhanyan and Avetik Esayan, both the Board members of the “Internet Society” NGO.

Let’s recall that this event was launched last year in Yerevan. The objective of Universal Acceptance (UA) is a worldwide movement aiming to ensure the recognition, acceptance, and functionality of domain names and emails registered in national scripts throughout all domain names` systems. Events for UA Day are coordinated with the support of ICANN.

Presently, the number of Internet users surpasses 5.3 billion. Due to the UA, this number could surge by over 1 billion, as non-English speakers may gain access to the Internet.

The efforts made in various countries towards this goal, notably the launch of national email services, were showcased during the conference held in Belgrade. These include the implementation of addresses and protocols ensuring mutual recognition. Dejan Đukić the Executive Director of the RNIDS Foundation emphasized that Serbian domain names “speak” in both Latin and Cyrillic. Incidentally, five Cyrillic fonts were developed and made available for free use. This initiative has demonstrated that the linguistic and cultural diversity of the country is now reflected on the Internet.

China leads in the number of domains (IDN gTLD) represented in the national language. Nine out of ten IDN gTLDs are Chinese, comprising 86% of global IDN gTLDs. Despite the impressive numbers, it was observed that there is still a necessity for intervention by the government, regulatory bodies, and other pertinent institutions in the implementation of UA in China and other countries.

Danko Jevtović, Vice President of ICANN’s Board of Directors, assessed the current collaboration and overall endeavors directed towards UA implementation, emphasizing that the organization is prepared to extend support for the broader execution of UA tasks.

Armenia has joined the UA movement through the “Internet Society” NGO and holds a leading position in terms of technical solutions and their implementation. The Armenian domain .հայ has been operational for nine years, and the domain for Armenian email address անուն@էլփոստ.հայ, is currently in its final testing phase.

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