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A Multilingual Internet for All Begins with Universal Acceptance of All Domain Names and Email Addresses

21 May 2026 | Sarmad Hussain, Senior Director, Internationalized Domain Names (IDN) and Universal Acceptance (UA) Programs, Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN)


Language should never determine who can fully participate online. The Internet is central to how people communicate, access services, conduct business, and take part in modern society. For it to truly serve everyone, users must be able to navigate and communicate online in their own languages and writing systems, including through domain names and email addresses. A multilingual Internet is therefore essential for digital access and meaningful connectivity.

 

The recently published IDN World Report 2026 highlights both the progress made toward this goal and the work that remains. Millions of Internationalized Domain Names (IDNs) are now registered and actively used by communities around the world. At the same time, the report underscores continuing challenges in Universal Acceptance (UA), where many software applications and online systems still do not consistently support domain names and email addresses in local languages and scripts.

 

IDNs and UA are key building blocks of a more multilingual Internet. Together, they help ensure that all valid domain names and email addresses, including those in local languages and scripts, work consistently across websites, applications, and online services.

 

ICANN has long supported the global multistakeholder community in advancing IDNs on the Internet. In response to community needs, ICANN facilitated discussions within the Domain Name System (DNS) industry in 2003 on implementing IDNs. These discussions led to the first version of the IDN Guidelines, which enabled IDN registrations based on technical standards developed by the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF).

 

The work on IDN standards development and implementation reflected a growing recognition of the Internet’s global importance. This was also noted in the commitment made at the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS, 2003) in Geneva to build a people-centered and inclusive Information Society where everyone can share knowledge and achieve their full potential. UNESCO, in its recommendations in 2003, noted that such a goal is only achievable by alleviating language barriers on the Internet and enabling multilingual capabilities. The community realized this required not only multilingual content, but also the ability for users to navigate and communicate online in local languages and writing systems. Therefore, at WSIS (2005) in Tunis, the community asked to advance the introduction of multilingualism in domain names and email addresses, by strengthening cooperation for their global deployment.

 

ICANN has continued to provide a platform for the community to develop guidelines, procedures and policies to implement domain names securely for multiple languages and writing systems. The Root Zone Label Generation Rules are an example of such work, where hundreds of volunteers have contributed over multiple years to enabling IDNs for 27 writing systems. These community efforts have resulted in the delegation of 151 top-level domains (TLDs) in 37 languages and 23 scripts. These include 63 country code top-level domains (ccTLDs) for 44 countries and territories successfully evaluated through the IDN ccTLD Fast Track Process, launched in 2009. An additional 90 generic top-level domains (gTLDs) have been delegated through the 2012 New gTLD Program.

 

Figure 1: The IDN ccTLDs evaluated through the IDN ccTLD Fast Track Process.

(*63 IDN ccTLDs for 44 countries and territories)

 

The subsequent work on Email Address Internationalization (EAI) at IETF now also allows for users to create and communicate using email addresses in their own languages and writing systems. These developments are already enabling local-language domain names and email addresses.


Examples of domain names:

 

● सार्वभौमिक-स्वीकृति-परीक्षण.संगठन  (Devanagari)


Examples of email addresses:

 


Significant progress has been made, but the Internet is still not yet seamlessly multilingual. This is largely due to a gap in UA, which not only creates barriers for users, but also leads to missed opportunities for businesses to gain customers and governments to serve their citizens. Acceptance rates for email addresses formed in local languages and scripts by websites and applications are improving, but remain low, e.g., acceptance of internationalized email addresses by 1,000 popular websites was found to be at 14% in a recent study. Similarly, the quarterly review shows that only around 29% of the email servers deployed using gTLD domain names support internationalized email addresses.

 

ICANN continues to work with the community to raise awareness and build capacity to enable UA adoption. Examples include hosting UA Day events and collaborating with academic institutions on the UA Curriculum Integration Program. Regular assessments indicate some improvement over time but point to a need for continued collaboration across industry, governments, and the technical community to achieve UA-readiness, as also noted in the WSIS+20 report.

 

Governments and regional organizations are both users and enablers of UA. When e-government platforms cannot process local-language email addresses, citizens are locked out of their own country’s digital services. Governments can embed UA in national digital strategies, ask for compliance in public procurement, and lead by example by adopting local-language domain names and email addresses for their own websites and communication.


Technology developers and service providers should treat UA as a foundational design principle. Every platform that rejects an internationalized email address closes a door to part of the world. Country code TLD operators have an opportunity to be key national enablers. Developers of artificial intelligence (AI)-driven tools should integrate multilingual support, including IDNs and UA, by default instead of requiring specialized prompting.


Civil society and academia need to raise awareness and advocate for UA support in public and private systems, especially for their local languages and scripts. Universities should integrate software internationalization, IDN and UA concepts into technical curricula to make sure that the next generation of technologists have the necessary knowledge and skills.


International and intergovernmental organizations may consider embedding UA in global agendas, offering technical assistance, and driving multistakeholder collaboration, including with the DNS industry. For example, UNESCO and ICANN have formalized a Cooperation Agreement and are conducting multiple outreach and capacity-building initiatives to promote UA as a stepping stone to a multilingual Internet.


The technical foundations for a multilingual Internet are already in place, and communities around the world are increasingly using domain names and email addresses in their own languages and scripts. The next step is ensuring that these identifiers work everywhere, for everyone. Universal Acceptance turns the vision of a truly multilingual Internet into an everyday reality – and achieving it will require continued collaboration across governments, industry, the technical community, academia, and civil society. It is a shared global responsibility, one where we all have a part to play.



Article by Sarmad Hussain, Senior Director, Internationalized Domain Names (IDN) and Universal Acceptance (UA) Programs, Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN)

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