ICANN Announcements

Read ICANN Announcements to stay informed of the latest policymaking activities, regional events, and more.

ICANN to Place .Nowruz Into Emergency Back-End Registry Operator Program

3 July 2024

The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) announced today that the generic top-level domain (gTLD) .nowruz is being placed into the Emergency Back-End Registry Operator (EBERO) program to protect domain name registrants.

Asia Green IT System Bilgisayar San. ve Tic. Ltd. Sti. (Asia Green), the registry operator for .nowruz, failed to meet the contractual obligation related to the emergency threshold of downtime for a Registration Data Directory Service. Four other gTLDs operated by Asia Green, .pars, .shia, .tci, and .xn--mgbt3dhd, were also not in compliance with this requirement. These four gTLDs currently have no registrants and, as such, have not been placed into the EBERO program at this stage. ICANN will closely monitor and assess the status of these four gTLDs and take the necessary steps to ensure the security and stability of the Internet, as well as protect future potential registrants. For more information, see the breach notice.

An EBERO provider may be temporarily activated if a gTLD registry operator is at risk of failing to sustain any of the five critical registry functions. Ensuring the availability of these functions helps to ensure the continued operation of registrants' domain names, and provides an additional layer of protection for the Domain Name System and industry ecosystem.

About ICANN

ICANN's mission is to help ensure a stable, secure, and unified global Internet. To reach another person on the Internet, you need to type an address – a name or a number – into your computer or other device. That address must be unique so computers know where to find each other. ICANN helps coordinate and support these unique identifiers across the world. ICANN was formed in 1998 as a nonprofit public benefit corporation with a community of participants from all over the world.