In November 2017 the Board requested that the ccNSO (and the GNSO) to engage with the SSAC to more fully understand the risks and consequences of using a domain name that includes emoji in any of its labels, and inform their respective communities about these risks. The Board also requested the ccNSO (and GNSO) to integrate conformance with IDNA2008 and its successor into their relevant policies so as to safeguard security, stability, resiliency and interoperability of domain names.
Following the Board request, during ICANN61 at Tech Day and the ccNSO meetings days in San Juan, members of SSAC informed the community about the risks associated with accepting emojis in any second or lower level labels.
On 26 February 2018, the ccNSO Council constituted the Emoji Study Group (ESG) to provide the ccTLD community and Council with a comprehensive overview of the issues associated with the use of Emoji in second level domains as well as any current practices by ccTLDs which accept such registrations. For more details please refer to https://ccnso.icann.org/sites/default/files/field-attached/emoji-sld-purpose-scope-activities-26feb18-en.pdf
At the end of its deliberations and after informing the community of its progress, the Study Group produced a draft report and now seeks final feed-back from the ccTLD community. The report will also be presented at the ccNSO Members meeting in Marrakech to seek feed-back from the ccTLD community present. The consultation period will close July 19, 23.59 UTC. Information to submit feedback can be found here.