[I]f a religious group or government says this term is clearly offensive to us and is somehow documented in our practices and policies that this is offensive … then they can mount an objection and then it goes to an official panel. There are world experts in these issues, in judging what’s viewed as a violation of different statutes.
—Rod Beckstrom, president and CEO of Internet regulating group ICANN, on how Vatican City or Pakistan might go about trying to veto .gay from ever becoming a top-level domain [via]
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I wouldn’t worry about it. BTW, what Beckstrom said first was, “I don’t won’t to opine on any specific candidate, because it’s speculative. But if you look at names that might be controversial, there’s a set of different checks and balances that have been built into the system.” He then described one of the “checks and balances,” the objection process. After an outside board reviews it, ICANN’s board can still make its own decision. An objection would not be taken seriously if it was merely a theological one. If the Vatican said, “we don’t want a .gay domain because homosexuality is a sin,” the Vatican would be politely ignored.
The review process is there to avoid top-level domain names like “guizi” (Mandarin, literally meaning “ghost” or “devil” but used as a derogatory term for Caucasians and Japanese) that could easily slip by a review board that is not fluent in all the world’s languages.