Plans for an area of the internet dedicated to pornography were killed last night in a vote by overseeing organization ICANN.In a split 9-5 board decision, the organization acted ruthlessly, against its own previous position, in order to put an end to an increasingly difficult and controversial issue - the approval of a .xxx top-level domain.The .xxx registry application has been the focus of enormous political pressure on ICANN for the past six months and was used at one point as a political football in a wider tussle for power within the internet. Despite everything that has been written and will continue to be written about the application however, two simple facts need to be recognized: * 1. The US government, despite its constant denials, has been the driving force in preventing the .xxx registry from being approved thanks to a campaign of right-wing Christians with close links to the current administration. * 2. The company behind .xxx, ICM Registry, has done all that has been asked of it in order to answer people's concerns, but has had its efforts ignored or misrepresented by those opposed to the registry.The history of the .xxx domain has been long and incredibly complex, with its approval constantly delayed or stymied for increasingly untenable reasons. It has also exposed ICANN's flawed decision-making processes and revealed the hidden hand behind what is supposed to be an autonomous organization overseeing the internet. ICANN has had to decide against its own recommendations, and has been caught in a web of conflicting statements. News source: The RegisterRead full story...
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