GoDaddy Stops Registering Chinese Domain Names

[BoomyBoy]

At least one company is ready to follow Google's stance on doing business in China: GoDaddy.

During a congressional hearing later today to discuss Internet freedom and China, GoDaddy executives plan to announce that they will stop registering domain names in China in response to a new government policy that requires extensive information about registrants, according to The Washington Post. Starting last December, individuals and businesses that wished to register a .cn domain name were being asked to submit a photograph of themselves as well as a serial number identifying their business license in China.

"This is the first time a registry has asked us to retroactively obtain additional verification and documentation of individuals who have registered a domain name through our company," Christine Jones, general counsel at GoDaddy, said in a copy of her prepared remarks provided by GoDaddy. The company will continue to manage existing registrations but will no longer offer new .cn domain names, she said.

Jones also told the committee that GoDaddy has faced increased numbers of DDoS (Distributed Denial of Service) attacks since the beginning of the year. "In the first three months of this year, we have repelled dozens of extremely serious DDoS attacks that appear to have originated in China, based on the IP addresses from which the attacks derived. Had our security systems not countered these attacks, the result would have been a widespread take-down of our customers' hosted Web sites," Jones said in her prepared testimony.

Google's Alan Davidson, director of public policy, also plans to speak before the hearing, coming two days after Google announced its decision to move its Chinese-language search engine from mainland China to Hong Kong in order to bypass government laws on Internet censorship.

"Internet censorship is a challenge that no particular industry--much less any single company--can tackle on its own," Davidson plans to say during his testimony, according to a copy of his prepared remarks posted on Google's public policy blog. "However, we believe concerted, collective action by governments, companies and individuals can help promote online free expression and reduce the impact of censorship."

For the most part, U.S. companies have reiterated plans to stay in China and adhere to their laws following Google's initial announcement in January and subsequent moves this week. Earlier this year, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton urged companies to do their part in pressuring governments to open up the Internet to their citizens, but many companies feel the issue is much more properly dealt with at the national level, according to trade group representatives.

Source: CNet

[Argi]

Given that a large amount of malware is served from .cn domain names, wouldn't these new rules be a good thing?

[Pupik]

At least one company is ready to follow Google's stance on doing business in China: GoDaddy.

During a congressional hearing later today to discuss Internet freedom and China, GoDaddy executives plan to announce that they will stop registering domain names in China in response to a new government policy that requires extensive information about registrants, according to The Washington Post. Starting last December, individuals and businesses that wished to register a .cn domain name were being asked to submit a photograph of themselves as well as a serial number identifying their business license in China.

It has nothing to do to Google. They're stopping for a different reason.

[Singh400]

Go GoDaddy!

Although it does seem like they have a very valid point. AFAIK this kind of request is uniqye & brand new.

[Fluxii Media]

Glad to see GoDaddy is doing this... clearly China is doing something wrong, and at this rate we could see many more companies following suit. If companies are getting attacks that are originated from China, then the only option is to get rid of China from the Interwebs. :p

[Growled Member]

I'm glad to see others follow Google lead but in the short term I'm not sure it's going to make much difference. I think China will do what China always does.

[Hot]

I'd be more impressed if GoDaddy improved their laughable hosting or customer service.

[hjf288]

In otherwords Godaddy get free publicity because they cannot be bothered with the additional work required to chase customers for a photoid and their internet business license (For china)

[I am Reid]

In otherwords Godaddy get free publicity because they cannot be bothered with the additional work required to chase customers for a photoid and their internet business license (For china)

lol, are you really trying to defend china on this?

[Stormeh]

That press release conveniently missed out the bit about the possible complaint to ICANN about their recent new found business interest in China along with the partnership with Alipay. If I recall correctly their partnership started right after the big shutdown over here.

Having said that, I'm no fan of giving my ID's and whatnot to registrars when I'm registering a domain, so I'm just going to stick with GoDaddy for good old .com :)