Saudi Arabia objects to some new gTLDs

[Milton L Mueller]

From: Andrei Barburas [mailto:abarburas at iicd.org]

Just because there will be no gTLD like for example, .buddha, that doesn't mean that people will not be able to find information about Buddha. The same applies to gambling, sex, poker, tattoos and pretty much all the "moral grounds" the KSA based its objections.

[Milton L Mueller] Exactly right. Creating a .buddha TLD does not make more people Buddhists, any more than blocking the creation of .sex makes people less sexual. It is the same stupidity we had over the .xxx domain: Pretending that by banishing a name from the top level space, we can eliminate the referent from the internet, or from life. Government representatives seem especially prone to this fallacy. The US govt's Suzanne Sene, for example, said with horror in reaction to the idea that  TLDs should not be censored, "My God, what if someone proposes .jihad?" As if the fate of jihad in the world somehow hinged on that.

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