.XXX Sites Blocked in UAE, BUT…
I had a conversation with a blog reader, and he mentioned that one of the primary .XXX informational websites set up by the ICM Registry, About.XXX, is being blocked by the United Arab Emirates government. I don’t know if all .XXX sites are blocked, but he indicated that they are.
According to the landing page that is seen when a visitor in the UAE types in About.XXX:
“Access to this site is currently blocked. The site falls under the Prohibited Content Categories of the UAE’s Internet Access Management Policy.“
This is something people speculated would happen en masse, and many thought this would be harmful to the .XXX extension and consequently, the domain owners who operate and invest in .XXX domain names. I, however, have a differing opinion.
I asked the person who sent the screenshot to do me a favor and visit a different domain name to see what exists on the site in the UAE. Not surprisingly, when he visited Playboy.COM, the same landing page was shown. The UAE blocks websites with adult content, whether they are on .XXX domain names or not.
If the UAE has blocked the entire .XXX extension via wildcard, I suppose it would be a problem for a company who owns and operates a non-adult website on a .XXX domain name. However, I can’t really imagine a non-adult website operating on a .XXX domain name. Also, it’s very likely any adult website would be blocked regardless of the extension due to the government’s regulations, so it’s not endemic to one particular domain extension.
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Comments (9)
theo
November 30th, 2011 at 2:09 pm
Countries like the UAE and India a few more will just block the entire TLD.
With that in mind who is gonna put a company website on a .XXX extension ?
.XXX is not intended for regular companies and .Travel is for travel related business (sex tourism excluded that fits more into .XXX) .
Elliot Silver
November 30th, 2011 at 2:17 pm
@ theo
Why would someone put a non-adult company website on a .XXX domain name?
Abdu
November 30th, 2011 at 3:12 pm
Governments will remain in power when it comes to deciding what extensions are blocked. I am sure all the other ‘controversial’ gTLDs will be blocked as well.
M
November 30th, 2011 at 3:36 pm
This has been said ALL ALONG. It really is just the beginning …. hundreds of millions, if not BILLIONS, of people will not have access to controversial extensions. They can be blocked with a few clicks by any government. You better be sure to have the .com in the coming years.
Elliot Silver
November 30th, 2011 at 3:38 pm
@ M
yes, but I think it’s much ado about nothing since ANY adult site will be blocked anyway, without regard for the extension. What does it matter if .XXX is blocked in countries where they’d block adult content anyway?
Keri Watson
November 30th, 2011 at 4:51 pm
Not sure why pornographers are charging regular companies to have their name blocked on .XXX. Shouldnt they be doing that for free?
Whats even more bizarre is that the porn king Manwin is sueing .XXX. ICANN seems like a mess for allowing this tld to pass.
Its just better to stay away from .XXX. Do not give them any money. .XXX seems like big trouble and doesnt look like its going to end well at all.
Elliot Silver
November 30th, 2011 at 5:52 pm
“Not sure why pornographers are charging regular companies to have their name blocked on .XXX. ”
@ Keri
Who are you calling “pornographers”? I assume you mean the ICM Registry, although that would be factually incorrect since the company is a registry and produces no content.
Majed
November 30th, 2011 at 9:31 pm
Actually the whole .xxx tld is blocked in UAE since day one. I read a blog post in andrew’s website earlier. Which talks about the new site about.xxx , i thought of visiting that. Indeed it was blocked, i tried different urls with in the same tld but the whole thing seems to be blocked.
gaetano marano
December 1st, 2011 at 3:07 am
I’ve always said that it is/will be very easy block ALL .xxx p0rn sites on the servers side (blocking the full TLD) that’s why invest in .xxx is a big risk
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