ICANN nixes porn Top Level Domain
For some time now there has been a proposal to create a special Internet Top Level Domain (like .com or .net) for adult fare only, with the designation .xxx. The governing body in charge of such things, ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers), has been dragging its feet on this and has now said “No” in a 9 to 5 vote. Conservative American Christian groups have been opposed while Europeans have generally been in favor.
There are various arguments, pro and con, on whether trying to gather porn into one domain is a good idea. It is a fact that there is an enormous traffic in porn. It can certainly be argued that it would make it easier to guard what children see if porn were put in one domain. But opponents say that nothing keeps a porn site from staying at a .com address. Whatever the merits of the various arguments, the political repercussion is not favorable to the US. As I said about the previous controversy on Internet governance, the US cannot expect the rest of the world to continue to meekly accept the Internet being administered by this country. The Wall Street Journal has an article (May 11, 2006; Page B5) that says
The move attracted the ire of other countries who saw it as evidence of U.S. influence over the Internet. They argued that the U.S. government, beholden to conservative groups, was politicizing decisions normally determined by technical criteria. The European Union, South Africa and Iran, among other countries, have said that the Internet is a global resource and no one country should have more control over it than others. The matter plays into broader concerns about Internet fragmentation, where countries develop their systems out of disenchantment with the Icann-managed Internet.
The vote also came in the wake of efforts by several countries to gain a stronger voice in the operation of the Internet. Jonathan Zittrain, a professor of Internet governance at Oxford University, told the Wall Street Journal: “Dot-xxx isn’t the best idea in the world. But a virtue of going ahead with it would have been a signal to ICANN’s constituencies around the world that it is not just an arm of the U.S. government.”
Added later in the day:
ZDNet has an article, “EU slams ‘interference’ in sex site vote”. One quote is
The Internet governing body’s decision to reject a new .xxx Internet domain for porn sites is a clear case of U.S. political interference in the Web’s governance, the European Commission said on Thursday.
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