Under the Affirmation of Commitments (AoC), ICANN is committed to ensuring that, as it contemplates expanding the top-level domain space, the various issues that are involved will be adequately addressed prior to implementation. These include issues such as competition, consumer protection, security, stability and resiliency, malicious abuse issues, sovereignty concerns, and rights protection. The AoC also requires ICANN to convene a community-driven review to examine the extent to which the introduction or expansion of gTLDs has promoted competition, consumer trust and consumer choice, as well as the effectiveness of:
- The application and evaluation process
- Safeguards put in place to mitigate issues involved in the introduction or expansion
