Mashable: The porn industry is rumored to win a major battle this week with the possible approval of the .xxx domain.
The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), which doles out the .com, .net and .biz suffixes for website URLs, could approve the domain name on Friday, according to Politico. The report goes on to say that such domains would be available for purchase this summer.
Reps from ICANN could not be reached for comment. However, reports of the .xxx top-level domain (TLD) for adult websites have circulated before. Last June, ICANN was poised to approve the domain, according to multiple reports, but it didn’t happen.
The domain name, originally proposed by a company called ICM Registry in 2005, had been held up by the Bush Administration, which had bowed to pressure by religious groups that opposed .xxx. (Somewhat surprisingly, some pornographers have also taken issue with .xxx, declaring it a form of digital segregation.) Some proponents also point out that .xxx would result in fewer accidental landings on .com porn sites, though there’s no indication that the domain would be mandatory for all or any adult websites. The Obama Administration hasn’t taken a stand on the domain name.
If approved, .xxx would be the latest domain name approved by ICANN. It would follow .co, which ICANN approved for commercial use last July.