.XXX Domain Halted by US Administration
17 Aug 2005AMMAN - The triple X domain name (.xxx), which was scheduled to receive a final approval on Tuesday, has been given a stop notice by US President George Bush on Monday.
Assistant Secretary at the US Commerce Department Michael Gallagher has asked the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) - the international organization that regulates Internet names and addresses - for a hold to be placed on this initiative.
ICANN approved the concept of an .xxx domain in June, and approval of ICM Registry's contract to run the suffix was expected this week.
"The Department of Commerce has received nearly 6,000 letters and e-mails from individuals expressing concern about the impact of pornography on families and children," Gallagher said in a letter made public on Monday.
Those who support the plan to set up the triple X domain say that it will make it easier for parents to block kids access to websites that they should not be looking at. With millions of websites to use on the net, pornography on the Internet is pervasive, it cannot be squelched; however, with this domain name it can be constrained.
The pressure is coming from right wing Christian conservative groups like the Family Research Council, which fears that "pornographers will be given even more opportunities to "flood our homes, libraries, and society with pornography through the .xxx domain."
“The issue of adding new gTLDs [generic top-level domain] is one of the main reasons the WSIS [World Summit on Information Society] asked for a WGIG [Working Group on Internet Governance] report,” member of the Country Code Names Supporting Organization (ccNSO) and the WGIG Charles Sha’ban told ag-IP-news Agency.
“Some countries and stakeholders believe that the logical Internet infrastructure is one of the most important issues in Internet governance. The .xxx is one case and will not be the only one," Sha’ban, Executive Director of Abu-Ghazaleh Intellectual Property (AGIP), pointed out.
On the other hand, some governments have been applying pressure on ICANN in a last-minute bid to head off .xxx. In a letter published on ICANN’s website on August 12, Chairman of ICANN’s Government Advisory Committee (GAC), Mohd Sharil Tarmizi expressed “concerns about the contract for the approval of the new top level domain, .xxx.”
“You may recall that during the session between the GAC and the Board in Luxembourg that some countries had expressed strong positions to the Board on this issue. In other GAC sessions, a number of other governments also expressed some concern with the potential introduction of this TLD,” Tarmizi said in his letter.
He pointed out that he has been approached by some of these governments and advised them that apart from the advice given in relation to the creation of new gTLDs in the Luxembourg Communiqué that implicitly refers to the proposed TLD, sovereign governments are also free to write directly to ICANN about their specific concerns.
“Based on the foregoing, I believe the Board should allow time for additional
governmental and public policy concerns to be expressed before reaching a final decision on this TLD,” Tarmizi concluded.
After ICANN's vote to approve .xxx, conservative groups in the United States called on their supporters to ask the Commerce Department to block the new
After ICANN's vote to approve .xxx, conservative groups in the United States called on their supporters to ask the Commerce Department to block the new
suffix.
"The volume of correspondence opposed to creation of a .xxx (domain) is unprecedented," according to Gallagher. "Given the extent of the negative reaction, I request that the board (provide) adequate additional time for these concerns to be voiced and addressed before any additional action takes place."
ICM Registry has proposed that it would handle the technical aspects of running the master database of .xxx sex sites. While the International Foundation for Online Responsibility, a non-profit organization, would be in charge of setting the rules for .xxx.
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