ALAC Rescinds Its Advice on the Proposed Guidelines for the Second String Similarity Review Process

On 28 March, the ALAC passed a motion to rescind its advice on the Proposed Guidelines for the Second String Similarity Review Process, which was submitted to the ICANN public comment last year. The advice essentially supports the recommendations of the ccNSO Extended Process Similarity Review Panel (EPSRP) Working Group. The validity of the advice was questioned after the ALAC reviewed the SSAC Advisory SAC084, which raises concerns over the potential user confusability with the proposed process in relations to the Internationalized Domain Name Top-Level Domains (IDN TLDs). After exchanging views with SSAC and ccNSO at ICANN58, the ALAC was made aware that registry policy may resolve the user confusability issue, if such mitigation is committed to by the registry and is considered as part of the evaluation process. The ALAC encourages all concerned bodies to find a path forward that will not compromise security and stability or the rigor of confusability evaluation processes while ensuring timely deployment of IDN TLDs.