How to make the Internet truly multilingual

Enabling people to reap the incredible benefits of the Internet in their own languages and scripts is a matter of equity and inclusion

Most people around the world don’t speak English as a first language and don’t use the Latin script. For many of them, the fact that most domain names, email addresses, and websites are in English and use the Latin script, presents a significant hurdle to accessing the Internet.

It does not have to be that way. Internationalized Domain Names and Universal Acceptance are the bridge that will bring the next billion users online and create an Internet that is truly multilingual. We only need to build and cross it.

While English is not the first language for most of the world, it is the most used language on the Internet. The prevalence of English and the reliance on its alphabet (i.e., the Latin script) creates significant obstacles for, and potentially excludes, billions of people who would prefer to access the Internet in their own languages and scripts.

When people realized that they could access websites purely in their own script, the excitement on their faces was clearly visible. Language is a barrier for entry to the Internet, and IDNs can help break it down.

Enabling people to reap the incredible benefits the Internet provides in their own languages and scripts is a matter of equity and inclusion. It can also unlock vast educational, cultural, and economic opportunities. This is particularly important for Asia generally, and India specifically, where projections say most of the next billion Internet users are located.

Internationalized Domain Names, or IDNs, and Universal Acceptance of IDNs are the bridge transporting us to the multilingual Internet of tomorrow. IDNs make it possible for people around the world to use domain names in their local languages and scripts, while Universal Acceptance, or UA, ensures that all systems connected to the Internet recognize and render different languages and scripts properly.

I have travelled to different countries in the region, such as Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, and Thailand to talk about IDNs. When people realized that they could access websites purely in their own script, the excitement on their faces was clearly visible. Language is a barrier for entry to the Internet, and IDNs can help break it down.

From these trips, we have since established many Label Generation Panels, which are working groups comprised of language and coding experts who determine which characters and letters can be included in a top-level domain name. The work for 26 scripts has now been completed, 19 of these scripts are used in the Asia Pacific region. That most of them are being used here only underscores the tremendous opportunities we have.

It surely helps when governments, like India’s, strongly support IDNs. The National Internet Exchange of India (NIXI) currently runs 15 IDNs covering 22 Indian languages. The Indian government is also working to digitize 650,000 villages. This could lead to at least 650,000 IDNs coupled with business opportunities for web designers, providers, e-commerce services, and others all flowing from those local language websites.

The country is also home to some 20,000 local language media outlets. While most of them have an Internet presence, to access their websites one still needs to type the English alphabet. Imagine being able to access your local language media in Hindi or other languages? Imagine the creative and economic potential this could unleash?

The National Internet Exchange of India (NIXI) currently runs 15 IDNs covering 22 Indian languages. The Indian government is also working to digitize 650,000 villages. This could lead to at least 650,000 IDNs.

Unfortunately, IDNs by themselves are not enough to create a truly multilingual Internet. Software and applications need to be programmed to accept IDNs. Many programmers are still not aware of the existence of IDNs and, as a consequence, most current software and applications only accept familiar domain names, such as .com, .org, or .in. We therefore need to not only raise awareness with technology companies, but, where required, help train their programmers to code their applications in such a way that they are able to render, or accept, all IDNs and long-form top-level domains. This is what the term Universal Acceptance describes.

In India, despite laudable government efforts to boost IDNs, there is still plenty of work left to do. According to a report report (https://uasg.tech/download/uasg-027-country-based-evaluation-of-websites-for-acceptance-of-email-addresses-in-2020-en/) by the volunteer-led Universal Acceptance Steering Group of 50 local websites surveyed in India, including government, media, academia, bank and e-commerce, only 11 percent accept Hindi IDN emails.

It does not have to be this way. India is poised to lead the way for the region when it comes to IDNs and UA, and ICANN stands ready to help. Partnering with the government of India and different stakeholders including the UA Local Chapter led by the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce & Industry (FICCI), we are planning various activities in 2023 to spread the word about IDNs and UA.

The future of the Internet is multilingual. Let’s build it together.

By Jia-Rong Low

Regional Vice President and Managing Director at ICANN Asia Pacific

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