Go Daddy ends new sign-ups in China
by Max Jarman The Arizona Republic Mar. 28, 2010 12:00 AM
The Scottsdale company known for its racy Super Bowl commercials has taken a tough stance on the heavy-handed surveillance practices of the Chinese government.
Internet domain-name registrar GoDaddy.com said it will no longer register new Web sites in China in response to new government rules that require it to provide additional personal information on its customers.
"The Chinese government is focused on using the Internet for monitoring and surveillance, and we are no longer comfortable with that," said Christine Jones, Go Daddy's executive vice president and corporate counsel.
It's a bold and possibly costly move for a company whose notoriety is tied to a string of sexy "Go Daddy Girls," including race-car driver Danica Patrick.
But, it's a move other companies may have to consider as oppressive governments step up Internet monitoring to censor content and keep tabs on users.
The Computer & Communications Industry Association in Washington, D.C., counts about a dozen countries, such as Egypt, Iran and Tunisia, with objectionable Internet-monitoring practices.
Catherine Sloan, the organization's vice president of government relations, said the number is expected to increase as Internet use grows in developing countries.
Go Daddy's move follows Google's recent announcement that it would no longer comply with the Chinese government's rules that it censor offensive search results. Google is sending Web searchers in mainland China to Hong Kong, where censored results are not legally required.
Sloan called the moves courageous and said they will hopefully result in governments softening their restrictive Internet-monitoring practices.
Go Daddy is the world's largest clearinghouse for Internet addresses, with more than 40 million domain names under management. Its biggest competitor, Network Solutions of Herndon, Va., also has stopped registering new .cn domain names in China.
Jones said that there are a number of Chinese companies registering names, but they are under even greater scrutiny and have no choice but to comply with the government rules.
Go Daddy has been registering domain names in China since 2005 and manages 27,000 names there for 1,200 customers.
Some customers have Web sites that the Chinese government could object to, said Jones, who told members of Congress on Wednesday that she was concerned for their security.
Jones was testifying before the Congressional-Executive Commission on China, which was meeting to discuss the ramifications of Google's decision earlier in the week.
Go Daddy's Chinese domain names are a fraction of those in a country with an estimated 350 million Internet users and represent a small portion of its annual revenue. But the Chinese market holds significant potential, and Go Daddy plans to continue to service its existing accounts there in hopes the government backtracks on its reporting requirements.
Initially, Go Daddy was required to obtain only the first and last names of the registrants, their physical addresses, telephone numbers and e-mail addresses.
But in December, the Chinese government implemented new rules that also required applicants to provide a color photo ID, Chinese business-registration numbers and certain signed registration forms.
Then in February, it required Go Daddy to obtain the additional information from existing domain-name registrants and submit it to the China Internet Network Information Center, or CNNIC, for it to review before the Web site was activated.
Jones said that operators of existing Web sites that failed to submit the additional information could have their sites deactivated by the government.
She testified that the action will have a "chilling effect" on the free exchange of information over the Internet and asked Congress to put pressure on the Chinese to rescind the reporting rules and crack down on Internet abuses, such as spam and payment fraud.
Jones said Go Daddy is constantly repelling cyber attacks against its security systems in China, in addition to dealing with prolific spammers and payment-fraud schemes.
"China today is basically the only major market where spammers can do just about anything they want," Jones testified.
