Why Would The Gov't Hide Documents About A .xxx Domain?

from the please-explain dept

The back and forth over the potential for a .xxx domain reserved for porn has been discussed at length, though, it's still rather amusing to see one set of politicians who believe it's a good thing, as it would keep porn away from children, and another set of politicians who believe it's a bad thing because it somehow "legitimizes" porn (this would be known as the "head-in-sand" position, considering that porn online hardly needs to be "legitimized" at this point). Either way, the Bush administration came down on the "head-in-sand" side after receiving pressure from family groups. That resulted in pressure on ICANN who, despite claiming independence from the US gov't, rejected the proposal after originally being for it.

The folks behind the .xxx proposal were (understandably) livid, and have filed Freedom of Information requests to find out what kind of discussions the gov't had in determining its position. Oddly, while some documents were released, the State Department and Commerce Department withheld many documents relating to discussions over the .xxx domain. A lawsuit was quickly filed, and a court has now ruled that the government doesn't have to reveal all the documents unless it's been shown that it blocked .xxx for "nefarious purposes." I had no idea that was a component of making FoIA decisions. Having a separate .xxx domain seems totally unnecessary (and just a way for registrars to soak up some extra money), but that still doesn't explain why the government felt the need to not release certain documents explaining its position. Kind of ironic that this comes out during Sunshine Week, which is supposed to highlight gov't openness.

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