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Texas will object to .texas gTLD

Kevin Murphy, August 24, 2026, 08:50:21 (UTC), Domain Registries

The US State of Texas has become the first government to publicly object to any gTLD applications matching its name.

Anthony Sauerhoff, state chief information officer, wrote to ICANN earlier this month to unambiguously state that Texas does not support any applications for .texas.

“At the Governor’s direction, I hereby inform you that the State of Texas does not support and does object to the application for the gTLD string “.texas,” and any derivative thereof,” he wrote (pdf).

“Delegating this string to an entity other than the State of Texas risks misuse, reputational harm, and potential confusion among residents and businesses,” he added.

The letter does not confirm that Texas itself has applied for the string.

No applicant has yet gone on-record with an announcement that .texas is among their submitted applications, so it’s quite possible that any plans were withdrawn, pre-armed with the knowledge of Texas’s lack of consent.

“Texas” is a protected string under the rules in ICANN’s Applicant Guidebook, so government support is required.


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