WhoisXML API Joins Industry Leaders at the ICANN82 Community Forum
WhoisXML API representatives recently attended the ICANN82 Community Forum held in Seattle on 8–13 March 2025, where they participated in cross-community conversations and plenary sessions.
The event brought together prominent figures in the industry—Curtis Lindquist, ICANN President and CEO; Nayala Saras, Vice President of Global Stakeholder Engagement, North America; and Tripti Sinha, Chairman of the ICANN Board of Directors; and many other leaders.
As a regular participant in ICANN forums, we want to share some of the important highlights from ICANN82 in this post.
Registration Data Access Protocol
As expected, the Registration Data Access Protocol (RDAP) was among the forum topics. There was even a dedicated online session on the current state of RDAP during the prep week.
During this session, ICANN Principal Engineer Andy Newton talked about the deployment status of RDAP and revealed that all gTLD registries and registrars and 30% of ccTLDs have deployed RDAP. Meanwhile, 20% of ccTLDs are in stealth mode, meaning they are running an RDAP service but haven’t put their base URLs into the IANA registry.
WhoisXML API is RDAP-ready, regardless of deployment status across TLDs. Our WHOIS API has an “rdap” parameter that allows users to choose between RDAP or WHOIS when retrieving domain registration data. We also implemented an automatic fallback mechanism to RDAP in case WHOIS data cannot be retrieved.
Opening of New gTLD Applications
Another milestone discussed during ICANN82 was the new gTLD program. Tripti Sinha updated the community about it, specifically reporting progress with the Applicant Support Program and the Registry Service Provider Evaluation Program.
The progress report on these programs signifies a significant step toward the next gTLD application round. That means applications for new domain extensions will soon be accepted for review—a development that the Internet community has been anticipating after a hiatus of 14 years.
AI and DNS Abuse
Aside from the new highlights, ICANN82 also tackled pressing issues affecting the community. In particular, the North-American Regional At-Large Organization (NARALO) round table session on “DNS Abuse and AI: Combatting and Enabling Threats.” This provided a platform to discuss the dual role of AI—it can be used to combat and enable DNS abuse.
The session gathered experts from the United Nations, Microsoft, and CleanDNS to shed light on AI’s capabilities in pattern analysis and machine learning and how these can help detect anomalies and improve system protection.
About WhoisXML API
WhoisXML API closely follows developments in domain policy discussions. We regularly participate in and contribute to policy and community meetings—our representatives presented in-depth research studies on DNS abuse trends during the ICANN77 and at Europol. WhoisXML API also consistently joins major cybersecurity industry conferences, such as the RSA Conference and Black Hat.
Our active participation in these events enables us to stay on top of policy changes, shifts in data collection methods (e.g., the sunsetting of port 43 and the transition to RDAP), and cybersecurity trends.
We work closely with major data aggregators worldwide, including domain registries and registrars, ISPs, and security agencies, to provide continuous, accurate, and up-to-date domain, IP, and DNS information.
WhoisXML API has been recognized as an Inc. 5000 honoree and one of the Financial Times’s Top Fastest-Growing Companies for several years. Our solutions are trusted by more than 52,000 users, including Fortune 500 companies, leading security firms, and organizations across various industries.