New Internet Policy Might Ban Gay Web Communities

Given the rate that .com names are snaffled up, wouldn’t it be cool if gay-friendly websites could be registered in a special “.gay” community? Well, don’t count on it!

Due to increasing political pressure, ICANN, the organisation responsible for domain name policies, is introducing severe new restrictions on what words can be used for top-level domain names. In particular, if even one country objects to a certain word or phrase, then that term would be banned from use until that country’s government is satisfied. But, hey, I’m sure international grievances are resolved quickly nowadays, right?

So, which countries might object to “slapupsidethehead.gay?” I guess I could think of at least one…

• ICANN as the Net’s Word Police [Agoravox]