June 8, 2005 | Sex & Society

.xxx domain approved

ICANN, the organization in charge of Internet addresses, last week  approved a new ".xxx" top-level domain for adult content, to be made available within the next year. The move reverses a decision ICANN made five years ago when it rejected a proposal for ".xxx" domains. 

The adult industry is not generally in favor of the ".xxx" domain. There are  fears that the federal government will attempt to force all adult websites to move from ".com" and ".net" domains to ".xxx" in order to isolate and censor them. Such a move would, of course, be unconstitutional - but that has never stopped the feds from passing restrictive laws before.

• The politics of .xxx [ZD Net]
• Porn-friendly xxx domains approved [CNET]
• Free Speech Coalition repeats: no XXX [AVN Online]