The .za Domain Name Authority (ZADNA) recently released the draft .za licensing regulations for public comment.
This allows all stakeholders and interested parties to have their say and shape the future of the South African Domain Name System (DNS) industry.
ZADNA is authorised by the Electronic Communications and Transactions Act (ECT Act) 25 of 2002 to propose regulations relating to .za domains with approval from the Minister of Communications and Digital Technologies.
ZADNA’s proposed regulations will provide procedures to regulate registrars and registries and ensure that South Africans are protected from malicious websites while increasing monitoring and compliance of BBEEE in the sector.
Additionally, the regulations propose a 10-year license period for registrars.
The proposed regulations will achieve this by strengthening the requirements that registries and registrars must meet to be licensed by ZADNA without impeding those in the ecosystem already – including the mandatory collection of the contact information of all parties who purchase a .za domain through a registrar’s services.
They would also mitigate abusive online activity on .za domains – such as phishing, the distribution of malware, and other illicit activities.
This would ultimately create a safer online environment for all South Africans.
The full proposed regulations can be viewed here.
Enhancing stakeholder engagement
These proposed changes are significant, which is why it is essential for all relevant stakeholders – such as registries and registrars – to provide their input into the draft regulations.
Comprehensive stakeholder engagements have been initiated by ZADNA to help it understand the full views held by all key players in the space and give registrars a prominent voice in this process.
ZADNA also aims to continuously engage industry stakeholders moving forward to ensure better coordination of the implementation of this process to ensure minimal impact on stakeholders.
ZADNA is calling on all interested parties to comment on the published draft of its licensing regulations by the 6 June 2022 deadline.
Source: Business Tech
