The Internet Runs on Cats and Porn. It’s About to Get Cattier and Pornier
ICANN is preparing to allow the creation of new top-level domain names for the first time since 2012. The organization continues to navigate complex governance issues, including balancing internet stability with its policy of non-censorship.
Why it matters
Changes to the internet's naming infrastructure affect how users navigate the web and how global governance bodies manage digital sovereignty and content policies.
And in 2026, for the first time since 2012, anyone can invent a new .word (even, literally, .word).
The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, or ICANN, is the governance body that makes the rules for domain names and IP addresses. These rules are ostensibly the kind of boring technical stuff that most people don’t know about, because the internet “just works.” You type in nike.com, you see the swoosh. But the rules solve hard problems that thousands of humans spend thousands of hours arguing over. When Ukraine asked ICANN in 2022 to shut down all traffic to Russian top-level domains, like .ru, ICANN declined. No censorship is one of the rules: Ensure the stability and security of the internet, but don’t police content.
Get smarter about the news
Sign up free for a feed built around what you actually care about, Dive Deeper research on any story, and the full text of every article.
Create free accountAlready have an account? Sign in