The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers is currently considering 1,930 new generic top-level domains (gTLDs) submitted by individuals and corporations from around the world, but a few gTLDs — such as .gay, .bar, .hot and .baby — are being met with opposition from Saudi Arabia.
The nation’s Communication and Information Technology Commission (CITC) complained that “Many societies and cultures consider homosexuality to be contrary to their culture, morality or religion” and that “the creation of a gTLD string which promotes homosexuality will be offensive to these societies and cultures.”
Likewise, the .baby gTLD — proposed by Johnson & Johnson — could be used for pornography, the CITC argued, and that “pornography undermines gender equality and threatens public morals.”The CITC used the same reasoning in its objections to .virgin, .porn, .sex, .adult, .hot and .dating domains, CNN reports.
Saudi Arabia also objects to the use of .islam, which was proposed by a private firm that “cannot represent the whole or even a majority of the worldwide Muslim community.”
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The public has until September 26 to lodge objections against the proposed gTLDs, and the first batch of new domains — about 500 — will be dotting the interwebs by next spring.
Dave
guess dot kismyazz or dot fckoff might also insult islams and other religions, although Im sure they would have no prob with .godhtsfags
Kev C
You can’t put the genie back in the bottle. Saudi Arabia has been contaminated by the gay-on-the-brain. A virus so potent it drives civilized people insane. Some seek comfort in eating chiken, and some seek God for answers, but the virus grows the more you think about it.
Ruhlmann
What a delicate thing heterosexuality is that it can be changed to homosexuality with “promotion”.
Ruhlmann
I just recalled that sometimes six beer will do that.
Cam
@Ruhlmann:
Thank you!!!
The only “Hetros” who are afraid that homosexuality is so “Attractive” that people can be converted to it, are the ones who have gay feelings themselves. My genuine straight friends could never be “Converted” to it.
And lastly…..gee, what a shock, Saudi Arabia objects to something. (Eye Roll)
Global Traveler
There is no woman so hot that she “turn me make me go straight”. Likewise there is no man so hot that he could make my straight male friends “go gay”. Why don’t these idiots get that? Although I guess by using idiots I’ve asked and answered my own question.
Global Traveler
Emily. I usually try to keep these discussions civil. But since you’ve decided not to I’ll bring it down to your level.
Go fuck yourself since apparently no one else will as you’ve got enough free time on your hands to worry about what other adults are doing. Fucking ignorant cretin.
Kev C
@Emily: Emily doesn’t sound like a muslim name. When did you convert to Islam?
Sammy
@Emily: try .litium
Chris-MI
The main purpose of these .unusual names is to make it easier for parents and creepy homophobic countries to block stuff. It’s pointless of course–HardcoreGayTrashyExtremeNaughtyPorno isn’t going to bother with HardcoreGayTrashyExtremeNaughtyPorno.gay because everyone already knows how to find what they’re looking for in the dot-com world. But I would think the Saudis would be all for dot-gay. The censors will block the whole domain and the unfortunate gay citizens of Saudi Arabia use the same proxy networks to sneak around it that they always have.
B
No. 10 · Chris-MI wrote, “The main purpose of these .unusual names is to make it easier for parents and creepy homophobic countries to block stuff.”
That’s not true in general but is true for specific cases such as “.xxx” or “.porn”. Google, for example, apparently proposed a “.doc” domain name, presumably for collections of documents.
For example, a “.pers” domain name would be appropriate for people setting up a personal web site as a personal web site isn’t an obvious match for .com, .net, or .org
Billysees
@Dave: Re 1
Well said.
It’d be interesting to see what they would say if such a name actually did make it to a list for them to review.
Would be curious what anyone would say.
I’m afraid that fundamentalist religious attitudes wouldn’t object one bit.
Anonymous Coward
The addition of new top-level domains will have little or no effect on anything. The major effect will be that every corporation with a trademark will now feel compelled to register their trademark name in .gay and each of the others, just as they already have to register it in .org, .net, .uk, and all the other old TLDs. Those additional registrations will generate revenue for ICANN and some name-registration companies.
Of course, Saudi will block .gay and .sex, just like they already block most names that include “gay” or “sex” as part of the name. And, of course, people who live in Saudi will continue to use proxy services to get that content, just like they do today.
The natural extension of this is to directly register trademarks _as_ TLDs. Imagine, .ford, .apple, .microsoft, etc. I would give that maybe ten years, before ICANN figures out how to charge silly amounts of money to register those names.
KARUADAM
The fucking Moslim, are just like the bloody Christian in Europe, you should all be exterminated in concentration camps.
Q
Wait, fucking Saudi is pretending to be making a case for gender equality? That is too retarded not to be a joke.