YNOT – The Australian Sex Party, a registered political entity, has offered an unusual prediction about the new dot-xxx sponsored Top Level Domain. According to a Monday statement, the party believes dot-xxx spells the beginning of the end for the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, which despite internal and external objections ended nearly a decade of discord by approving the domain space during a Friday board meeting.
In the opinion of Sex Party President Fiona Patten, the ICANN board’s consistent disregard for diverse opposing voices amounts to reckless authoritarianism, which may cause ICANN difficulties when the organization’s charter to manage the web’s Domain Name System comes up for renewal.
“Not only [did the ICANN board of directors] ignore advice from [the adult entertainment industry], but they ignored the advice of their own Governmental Advisory [Committee], which includes the Australian government,” Patten said. “Even the religious groups were against this new domain being created. It was probably the first and only time we will ever see sex industry, government and morals groups all lining up to agree on internet censorship.”
Patten also said the decision delivered “a huge blow to a free internet” and would increase censorship of the net in ways that could not have been imagined a few years ago.
“Although we would hope it never happens, with all adult sites corralled under one dot-xxx domain, it would be an easy thing for the [Australian] Communications Minister to simply ask all ISPs in Australia to filter the new domain, and all adult material would be denied to adult Australians,” she said. “If adult sites continued to hide under a dot-com or a dot-net address, it would be a simple matter for the minister to legislate that all adult sites must trade under the new dot-xxx domain.”
In approving dot-xxx, for the first time ICANN also approved content guidelines for a new domain, placing the international organization in the position of de facto content regulator — a position outside the bounds of ICANN’s mandate and specifically at odds with the organization’s bylaws, Patten indicated.
“The content they will accept for dot-xxx will accommodate a considerable amount of Refused Classification material in Australia, which will almost certainly encourage the federal government to look at some sort of filtering arrangement,” Patten said.
“The current political uprisings in the Middle East have relied heavily on the internet and both temporary and permanent websites to gain traction and disseminate information,” she continued. “The necessity for some of these sites to ‘hide’ on the internet and remain inconspicuous is obvious. If ICANN starts forcing new domains on particular organizations and industries, it leaves the path wide open for dictators, theocracies and even democracies to start using [ICANN] for censorship and manipulation. How long will it be before all media groups will be expected to register under a dot-med domain or political groups under dot-pol?”
The U.S. adult industry trade association Free Speech Coalition has vowed to make the new domain unworkable and could be organizing an international boycott, Patten observed, based in part on what FSC has called nothing short of carpetbagging: ICM Registry, the company that won the contract to operate the dot-xxx domain registrar, is attempting to force a set of rules on the adult industry from outside the industry while reaping enormous profits at the industry’s expense.
Australia’s counterpart to FSC, Eros Association, has taken a similar stand. The organization laid out its objections to dot-xxx in a letter (PDF) to Conroy last year.
“In allowing a non-adult-industry company to set up and profit from this new domain, against 90 percent of the expert advice they [received], ICAAN has not had the particular interests of the industry at heart,” said Patten, who also serves as Eros’ chief executive officer. “This is a dangerous precedent.”
