Go Daddy: “Won’t Act as agent for the Chinese Gov”

Following Google’s historic decision to stop censoring search results in China, effectively ending the company’s business in the world’s largest Internet market, two of the largest domain registration and hosting companies in the world, Go Daddy (www.godaddy.com) and Network Solutions (www.networksolutions.com) have announced their plans to stop registering domain names in China. Go Daddy’s executive VP and general counsel Christine Jones said in a prepared statement, Jones reportedly said that Go Daddy

“made a decision we didn’t want to act as an agent for the Chinese government.”

Network Solutions announced Wednesday that it had stopped hosting new websites with the .cn China domain in December, for much the same reasons as Go Daddy.

The China Internet Network Information Center authorizes companies outside China to sell .cn domain names but in December, the organization changed its policies to require registrars to collect color head-shot photographs, detailed business information, and other details about all domain registrants.

Both companies said they would continue to support domains already registered, but had ceased to seek out new business in China.

While the decision has obvious privacy, expression, and human rights issues attached, the cost of doing the complex “fact-gathering”, now required by the Chinese government is another major consideration in the domain business.

Good job Go Daddy!