Recent Posts
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- Four deadbeat registrars get terminated
- “No timeline” to retire Soviet Union from the DNS
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- Lancaster bags up its dot-brand
- Google readying its next batch of gTLD launches?
Fifth-largest gTLD not dead after all
ICANN has assured users of its zone file distribution service that the .top gTLD is not dead, after an unspecified snafu earlier this week suggested it was.
On Wednesday, users of the Centralized Zone Data Service received an automated email stating: “Your zone data access for .top has been revoked… Reason: Request revoked as TLD has been made inactive.”
That would be a pretty big deal, as .top is the fifth-largest gTLD by volume and the second-largest new gTLD after .xyz, with something like 5.7 million names in its zone.
It might also carry a ring of truth for CZDS users who don’t track ICANN activities very closely, as .TOP Registry has recently been on the Compliance naughty step over DNS abuse allegations.
But affected users were assured yesterday that .top is not inactive and that an “issue” was to blame.
An email read: “an issue that temporarily marked the .TOP generic top-level domain (gTLD) as inactive… As a result, your previously approved CZDS access request for the .TOP zone file was revoked.”
The email goes on to say that users can wait for their access to be restored “in the next few days” or manually initiate a new CZDS request for the .top zone, which requires approval from the registry.
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It would be good for ICANN to enhance their enforcement process against registry operators and registrars.
In this case, it is well known that .top uses a price ’em cheap and whack ’em out regardless of the nefarious activity they are enabling (and yes, they, the .top registry operator, is ENABLING abuse on a global scale).
ICANN needs to develop more bite and crack down on abuse. It all seems like a ‘oh well, its just digital abuse’ thang, until you follow the evidence and realise the real-world harm going on behind the scenes.
Plenty of blame to go-around and, typically, in the ICANN world, lots of talk and little to no meaningful change. Bring on the next AGM where we can all discuss it with hugs a plenty again (sigh)…