Can UNESCO and ICANN build a more inclusive internet?

In an era where digital connectivity shapes social, economic, and cultural landscapes globally, the quest for an inclusive and multilingual internet has gained paramount importance. The recent partnership between UNESCO and the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), announced in February 2025, marks a significant milestone in this endeavor. This analysis explores the key agreements, the importance of multilingualism and inclusion, real-world initiatives, challenges faced, and leadership perspectives driving this transformative agenda.

What are the key agreements and initiatives between UNESCO and ICANN?

The collaboration between UNESCO and ICANN is designed to enhance linguistic diversity online by expanding support for additional scripts and languages within the Internet’s Domain Name System (DNS). This includes domain names and email addresses, which are fundamental to internet access and communication.

The partnership emphasizes advancing Universal Acceptance (UA), a principle ensuring that all domain names and email addresses—regardless of script, language, or character length—are fully functional and accepted across all internet-enabled platforms, applications, and devices. This is critical for removing barriers that prevent users from accessing the internet in their native languages or scripts.

By focusing on these technical and policy aspects, UNESCO and ICANN aim to make the internet more accessible to hundreds of millions of users worldwide, particularly those whose languages have historically been underrepresented or excluded in the digital sphere. This initiative is not only a technological upgrade but a cultural and social imperative to democratize internet use globally (UNESCO, 2025).

Why is multilingualism and inclusion important in internet governance?

UNESCO’s Director-General Audrey Azoulay has highlighted a stark reality: although approximately 7,000 languages are spoken worldwide, only about 400 are fully accessible online. This discrepancy reveals a significant digital divide that marginalizes vast populations from meaningful participation in the digital economy, education, governance, and social interaction.

Guilherme Canela de Souza of UNESCO articulates multilingualism as both a right and a necessity for genuine digital inclusion. Without enabling diverse linguistic communities to engage online in their mother tongues, the internet risks perpetuating inequalities and cultural homogenization.

ICANN’s Theresa Swinehart underscores Universal Acceptance as a practical step toward digital equality. Ensuring that domain names and email addresses in all languages and scripts function seamlessly across the internet ecosystem is fundamental to fostering an inclusive digital environment where no language or community is left behind.

How are real-world initiatives advancing this agenda?

Concrete initiatives demonstrate the partnership’s impact beyond policy and technical frameworks. For example, hackathons in Bahrain involving university students bridge the gap between technical expertise and community needs, fostering grassroots engagement in internet governance. These events empower young people to contribute solutions tailored to linguistic and cultural contexts, cultivating local ownership of digital tools.

Valts Ernstreits from Latvia shares how international advocacy has elevated the status of the Livonian language domestically. This case exemplifies how global efforts can influence national policies and support endangered languages, preserving cultural heritage while integrating it into modern digital platforms.

The 2025 Internet Governance Forum in Lillestrøm, Norway, emphasized the need for structural reforms and long-term investments to enable indigenous and underrepresented communities to participate meaningfully in internet governance. Such participation requires practical engagement tools and community-driven infrastructure, ensuring that inclusion is not tokenistic but substantive.

What challenges and solutions exist in promoting a multilingual internet?

Despite progress, significant challenges remain. Bureaucratic hurdles often exclude indigenous communities from decision-making processes, and a disconnect persists between technical experts and policy-makers. This gap hinders the development of solutions that are both technically feasible and culturally appropriate.

Panelists at recent forums agreed that mentorship, collaboration, and context-sensitive tools—such as localized WhatsApp groups and capacity-building networks—are vital to overcoming these barriers. These approaches foster knowledge sharing and empower communities to advocate for their linguistic rights online.

UNESCO’s roadmap for multilingualism and ICANN’s upcoming domain name support program represent critical opportunities to institutionalize these efforts, providing frameworks and resources necessary to scale inclusion initiatives globally.

What are the perspectives of leadership driving this movement?

Audrey Azoulay encapsulates the urgency and vision behind these efforts:

“In an increasingly digital world, it is essential to facilitate people’s access to the Internet. But today, there are only around 400 languages fully accessible online, representing just a fraction of the world’s 7,000 spoken languages. This agreement improving linguistic diversity represents an important step towards achieving the goal of an Internet accessible to all.”

(UNESCO, 2025)

Kurtis Lindqvist, President and CEO of ICANN, reinforces this commitment:

“We look forward to working with UNESCO to bridge digital divides and connect communities. Supporting domain names in local scripts and language, and their Universal Acceptance, is essential to enabling a diverse and multilingual online experience. This collaboration with UNESCO reaffirms our goal of one world, one Internet.”

(ICANN, 2025)

Their statements reflect a shared vision of a digital future where linguistic diversity is not an obstacle but a celebrated feature of the internet, fostering inclusivity, cultural expression, and equitable access.

Toward a Truly Inclusive and Multilingual Internet

The partnership between UNESCO and ICANN marks a significant and strategic effort to confront the linguistic inequities that persist on the internet. By focusing on Universal Acceptance—the principle that all domain names and email addresses, regardless of language, script, or length, should be fully functional across all internet platforms—this collaboration addresses both the visible symptoms and the underlying causes of digital exclusion. Alongside technical support for diverse scripts, the partnership emphasizes capacity building and policy advocacy, creating a comprehensive framework to foster greater linguistic inclusion online.

Achieving a truly multilingual and inclusive internet is no small feat. It demands sustained commitment from a broad range of stakeholders, including governments, technical communities, civil society, and the private sector. Cross-sector collaboration is crucial to harmonize efforts and resources, ensuring that initiatives are effective and scalable. Equally important is community empowerment—providing the tools, knowledge, and platforms necessary for linguistic minorities and indigenous groups to actively participate in shaping the digital landscape.

As digital transformation accelerates globally, the risk of marginalizing languages and cultures that lack adequate online representation grows. This marginalization is not only a social justice issue but also a threat to the richness and resilience of the global digital ecosystem. Languages carry cultural heritage, knowledge systems, and unique worldviews; their absence online diminishes the diversity and vibrancy of the internet as a global commons.

The path toward a multilingual internet is inherently complex. It requires technical innovation to develop and implement solutions that support a wide array of scripts and languages. Policy reform is necessary to create enabling environments that recognize linguistic rights and promote equitable access. Cultural sensitivity must guide these efforts to respect and celebrate linguistic diversity rather than impose dominant norms.

Despite these challenges, the initiatives led by UNESCO and ICANN offer a hopeful trajectory. Their leadership, combined with grassroots engagement and international cooperation, is laying the groundwork for an internet that is truly accessible to all. This vision is one where language is no longer a barrier but a bridge—connecting people across cultures and geographies in a shared digital space.

Moving toward a truly inclusive and multilingual internet is essential for realizing the internet’s full potential as a tool for empowerment, education, and cultural exchange. The UNESCO-ICANN partnership exemplifies the kind of holistic and collaborative approach needed to make this vision a reality, ensuring that everyone, regardless of their language or script, can participate fully and equally in the digital age.