Press Release: ICANN86 Policy Forum Brings Global Internet Community to Seville

BRUSSELS, May 28, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) will hold its 86th Public Meeting, the ICANN86 Policy Forum in Seville, Spain, from 8–11 June 2026 at the FIBES Conference and Exhibition Centre.

Hosted by the Spanish Ministry for Digital Transformation and Civil Service, ICANN86 will bring together participants from governments, civil society, business, and the technical community to collaborate on policy, technical, and governance issues that enable the Internet to function across borders.

ICANN coordinates key technical systems that are critical to the Internet's global operation, including the Domain Name System (DNS) and Internet Protocol addresses. ICANN86, ICANN's mid-year meeting, will focus on current community work in areas including DNS Abuse mitigation, access to domain name registration data, DNS security and resilience, Universal Acceptance, Internationalized Domain Names, and the governance of systems that support the global coordination of Internet number resources.

While technical, these issues have a broad impact on the Internet, and the 6 billion people who use it. They shape how the Internet remains secure and stable, how abuse can be addressed, how to expand multilingual access, and how the Internet continues to function as a single, globally interoperable system.

"ICANN86 comes at a time of growing attention to how the Internet is coordinated and how key technical systems operate across borders," said Kurtis Lindqvist, ICANN President and CEO. "That makes ICANN's consensus-based, multistakeholder model all the more important. In Seville, the community will continue its work on the technical and policy issues within ICANN's remit through processes that help keep the Internet stable, secure, and globally interoperable."

During ICANN86, ICANN's Supporting Organizations and Advisory Committees will continue their work on policy development and advice on issues within ICANN's remit. ICANN has also invited students and young professionals to engage with the community through NextGen@ICANN and the ICANN Fellowship program. Sessions of note include the Governmental Advisory Committee Opening Plenary, the DNS Security Extensions Security Workshop, and a DNS Women session.

"Spain is pleased to welcome ICANN and its community to Seville for the ICANN86 Public Meeting," said Ms. María González Veracruz, Secretary of State for Digitalization and Artificial Intelligence, Spanish Ministry for Digital Transformation and Civil Service. "We are proud to host this global gathering and the discussions on coordinating the systems that help keep the Internet working and people connected."

ICANN86 will be ICANN's second Public Meeting in Spain, after Barcelona in 2018.

The meeting will be held in hybrid format, offering both in-person and remote participation. In-person registration is open now and will close on Sunday, 7 June 2026. Remote registration will remain available through the end of the meeting.

For more information and to register, visit the ICANN86 meeting webpage.

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.

SOURCE ICANN