In my June 16th post titled, “New Domain Names Bring New Challenges,” I discussed some of the potential issues that could arise from ICANN’s approval of new generic top level domains, including such domains as .ADULT and .PORN. Well apparently the Saudi Arabian government, which through its Committee for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice enforces Sharia law within that country, including ensuring that drugs and alcohol are not sold, that women are appropriately covered, that men and women that are spotted together in public are related, as well as banning the celebration of Valentine’s Day and the sale of Barbie dolls, also has noted the issues that could arise from these domains and has officially objected to the 163 of the new gTLD applications registered with ICANN.
Among the new gTLD’s that have been objected to by the Saudi Communication and Information Technology Commission are .VIRGIN (applied for by the Virgin Group) and .BABY (applied for by Johnson & Johnson).
The Saudi’s also objected to .SEX, .PORN, .SEXY and .DATING. They also objected to .HOT, although owing to the climate in Saudi Arabia stating that the population of that desert nation is “hot” would be a wholly innocuous statement.
Because of the religious concerns referred to in the first paragraph, the Saudis also objected to .WINE, .BAR, .VODKA, .PUB, .CASINO, POKER, .SUCKS, .TATTOO, .WTF, .BIBLE, .CATHOLIC and .ISLAM. The Saudis have an understandable objection to that last domain when one considers that one of the Saudi King’s titles is Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques, the two mosques being Masjid al-Haram in Mecca, which contains Islam’s most sacred place, the Kaaba, and Al-Masjid al-Nabawi in Medina which contains Muhammad’s tomb.
Any comments received by ICANN before September 26th concerning the new gTLD’s that have been applied for will be forwarded to independent evaluators.
