BRITISH COLUMBIA – Paul Twomey, president of the Internet Corporation of Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) said today that ICANN is still waiting for the recommendations of an advisory committee reviewing the proposal for the new adult-specific top level domain .XXX, and there’s no plan to make a decision the group’s meeting in Vancouver this week.In June, ICANN announced their intention to move forward with the proposed TLD, which has drawn criticism from a variety of opponents that range from Christian conservatives to adult industry professionals, but a wrench was thrown into the plan in August, when the U.S. Commerce Department asked for a delay in the process to in order to allow more time to hear objections to the domain.

Twomey said the review committee, which is comprised of representatives from both the U.S. and other governments, has not told ICANN’s board what specific objections are delaying the process, only that the committee needs more time to review material. Twomey also could not say when the advisory committee would be ready, leaving the .XXX proposal right where it has been since August: up in the air.

Proponents of the .XXX domain (including ICM Registry Inc., the company that would operate and maintain the new TLD), extol its virtues as a child-protection device, and have pitched it to the adult industry as a way to obtain legitimacy by demonstrating responsible self-regulation.

Due in large part to the voluntary nature of .XXX, however, conservative groups like the Family Research Council assert that all the new TLD would accomplish would be to put more of the material they object to onto the Web, and actually increase the risk to children rather than diminish it. Conservative groups also fret about exactly what ICM suggested to members of the porn industry – the legitimizing of pornography.

Some see the .XXX proposal as a test of ICANN’s independence from the U.S government, which has resisted efforts to turn control of the Web’s domain name system over to an international oversight group; ICANN cannot make changes to the domain name system without the approval of the U.S. Commerce Department.

Milton Mueller, a professor at Syracuse University, said the U.S. has undermined its neutrality in the assignment of domains by intervening in the .XXX situation. Mueller asserts that Washington has lobbied other governments to join them in opposition to the plan.

“If ICANN caves in to this pressure, it reveals to the world that it really is just a plaything of the U.S. administration,” Mueller said, “and the U.S. reveals to the world that it is able and willing to abuse its power over ICANN.”