Report: ICANN may approve .xxx domain as early as tomorrow

By Aemon Malone March 17, 2011

It’s been a long time coming. But the fight over an adult-oriented domain suffix may be nearing an end. Politico has reported that the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), the organization in charge of approving and assigning the .com and .net suffixes, may approve the .xxx domain as early as Friday. ICANN is currently in the midst of a week-long meeting in San Francisco.

The idea for the porn-friendly domain suffix was first introduced by ICM Registry in 2005. But after religious groups launched protests, the Bush administration put the approval process on ice. In 2007, ICANN formally rejected ICM’s request (again), which prompted ICM to file a suit. ICANN’s decision was overturned, opening the door for ICM to press for the .xxx domain yet again.

Now with the Bush administration gone and the Obama administration declining to take a stand one way or the other, it looks like the porn industry may wind up with its very own domain.

Although, not everyone in the business is happy about it. Some opponents in the porn industry see the domain as move to segregate porn sites from the mainstream Internet. Then there are countries such as Saudi Arabia, Iran and Brazil who are wary of porn receiving an officially recognized domain.

Those in favor of the domain argue that it would make it easy to regulate the Internet’s “red light district” — an idea that is especially appealing to places of learning and business.

If approved, the .xxx domain could be up and running as early as this summer. You can read more about the storied struggles of .xxx domain here.

Former Digital Trends Contributor

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