China bans GoDaddy
August 28, 2008 – 3:40 pmGoDaddy, the leading domain registrar and hosting solution, has been blocked by the Chinese government in the country. The speculation is that it is related to the Beijing Olympics. The China Internet Network Information Center (CNNIC) stated that the government has banned the issuing of domain names with the “.cn” suffix based on China’s gold medal-winning athletes to anyone but the athletes themselves. It “strongly advised” for anyone who had an athletes domain name, to turn over the domain to the athlete as “a gift”.
Getting back on track, the speculation for why GoDaddy is involved, is that the Chinese government cannot force anyone, nor retrieve the domain with its own efforts, if the domain has been registered with an outside domain registrar such as GoDaddy. Therefore until the olympic games are over, we will assume that internet users in China will not be able to access the site.
Let us know by leaving a comment when/if you hear anything further on the issue or when you know the ban is lifted.
Tags: domains, godaddy