Bret and all, I think what this is all about is the second guessing of DOC/NTIA after receiving many complaints from citizens to the .XXX gTLD. Such a gTLD has little to do with hate speech, but may have allot to do with promoting questionable sexual/personal behavior. Lets not forget that the GNSO recommended .XXX to the board, and the board seemed to be leaning towards approving .XXX. That got nixed by DOC/NTIA, and I believe rightly so. Next thing you know is that proposals for .GAY or .FAG will be submitted and than be considered by the GNSO for approval. I may be wrong, but my guess is that such proposals whether gTLD's or IDN gTLD's will be met with significant public displeasure as well as international political intrigue that ICANN doesn't want or frankly, need. Bret Fausett wrote:
to censor top level domains based on notions of "morality and public order", and broadly defined "community" wishes.
You don't need to think very long to know that words exists that are so ridden with hate that they do not deserve to be hard-wired into the fabric of the Internet. This doesn't mean that speakers can't speak -- they can register a domain in any other TLD and write until their arms fall off. It only means that ICANN isn't going to elevate hate speech into the root zone.
Let's watch and see how this process works before we condemn it. I acknowledge that there is some potential for abuse in the implementation of such vague notions as "morality and public order." Nevertheless, if we get the narrow implementation hoped for by Professor Crawford, I think this can work out well for the benefit of everyone.
-- Bret
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