InternetNZ annual report 2019-2020

Our work at InternetNZ has never been more important than it is now. We are here to help New Zealanders harness the power of the Internet for good. We’ve done that through providing a world class domain product in .nz; through the work this year on coordinating and pushing for greater digital inclusion, and the contributions we provide to ideas and initiatives in the community through our funding and support. 

But we have also seen some of its darker, more challenging sides. The Christchurch mosque attacks were a horrifying, terrible moment for our country, and the harm was made worse by the way the Internet was used to share it. The Christchurch Call that followed was a moment that our organisation stood up and made a unique, powerful contribution on the world stage. InternetNZ stood in the tricky position of expecting platforms and their users to do better by each other, while at the same time not hampering the massive creative potential of being globally connected. 

These are tricky balances to hold. And those balances are important. They require an informed and thoughtful team that can develop and advocate for those positions, and I’m pleased and grateful that we have that in Jordan and our staff at InternetNZ. But we also need an informed, passionate, capable and kind community and membership around us - people that help us understand the challenges and opportunities; that share ideas, connections and inspiration, and that hold us to account to keep striving to do more and better of what we do here at InternetNZ.

Thank you for being part of what we do. We cannot hold these important balances without you. And we have so much more to do to fully realise the potential of the Internet, for good, together.

Jamie Baddeley
President, InternetNZ 

Our organisation has changed. We developed a new focus on building an “Internet for good” alongside our existing focus on digital inclusion. This is how we go about helping New Zealanders harness the power of the Internet.

Through the year we started some big things. The full review of .nz policies. The replacement of our core registry systems. We also carried on our usual work sustaining .nz, supporting the Internet community, informing Internet policy and developing new products to serve Kiwis.

All the work showcased in this report has been helping with that purpose. Whether it’s new products we offer, events we host, policy input we provide, sponsorships and funding we commit, the direction is clear: helping Kiwis make better use of the Internet, and change it for good. 

As we verge on an historic anniversary, celebrating twenty five years since we were founded later in 2020, I want to record my thanks to the whole team of our organisation—be it our hard working and talented staff and contractors, our insightful and strategic Council, our diverse and well-connected members, the stakeholders and partners we work with—all of you have contributed to our work over the year and landed the successes we celebrate here.

Thank you!

Jordan Carter

Chief Executive, InternetNZ

.nz policy review

The .nz External Advisory Panel was established in 2019. The Panel has consulted with the Internet community, expert stakeholders, and New Zealanders around the country to develop its Issues Paper, delivered to InternetNZ in February 2020. The Panel is about to launch its next paper with proposed options for .nz and will go out to public consultation with New Zealanders, to develop recommendations to help make .nz a globally excellent ccTLD

Registry replacement project

• The project to replace the current registry system launched in September 2019. Expressions of interest successfully concluded in February 2020 with three respondents selected and invited to respond to a request for proposal (RFP) for a new registry system.

Safety and security of .nz

• Since July 2019, all new .nz registrations are analysed to detect fake webshops. We’ve detected 729 cases within over 92,000 registrations in that period.
• We've undertaken new data collections to understand the state of the .nz name space
  • 44% of all .nz domains have a secure website
  • 31% of .nz domain names have SPF, an email authentication technology, enabled.

Written submissions

• Draft Algorithm Charter
• Countering violent extremism online
• Review of the use of Parliament TV coverage
• Technological change and the future of work
• Standardising classification for commercial video on-demand content
• Foreign interference in our democratic processes
• Copyright issues