August 15, 2012 | Online

Saudi Arabia offended by .gay and .baby

Saudi Arabia is not excited by some of the new domain names being planned by ICANN, the organization that manages web addresses.

ICANN is planning to increase the number of current domains, which includes .com and .gov, from 364 to a whopping 2,000. However, Saudi Arabia is upset by several of the proposed domains, including .gay, .catholic, .virgin and .wtf.

Officials from the country have listed 160 objections, and given a reason for each one.

For .gay, the country considered it "offensive" adding that "many societies and cultures consider homosexuality to be contrary to their culture, morality or religion."

Andy Wasley, from Stonewall, countered: "Saudi Arabia already prevents its 1.9 million lesbian, gay and bisexual people from visiting community websites, like Stonewall's, that offer support and information. It's disappointing that it now wants to censor the internet for 420 million gay people worldwide."

Other domains at issue: .pub, .baby, .islam, .tattoo, .wine, .casino, .vodka, .poker, .sucks.

The government objects to the use of  .baby in case it "is used in the same way as .XXX to host pornographic websites."

Oh, stop being so .silly.

Saudi Arabia opposes .gay internet domain name [BBC News]