Protect Your Website’s .org Registration from Massive Price Hikes and Potential Censorship

TAKE ACTION

Prices for nonprofit website addresses ending in .org may soon increase dramatically and censorship may become a distinct possibility because of two seemingly connected events. Earlier this year, the governing body overseeing the .org domain, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), removed price caps despite 97 percent of the more than 3,200 submitted comments expressing opposition. The removal leaves nonprofits vulnerable to abrupt, unanticipated, and significant cost increases at a moment’s notice. Then, last month, the nonprofit Internet Society announced it had sold its ownership of the .org Public Interest Registry to a private equity firm, Ethos Capital.

The proposed sale would put the rights to more than 10 million domains in the hands of venture capitalists, who – without the longstanding cost controls in place to protect nonprofits – could take more than $750 million dollars from nonprofit missions. The conversion of the .org registry to for-profit control raises the specter of corporate interests shutting down websites that do what nonprofits do: speak truth to power. A new letter sent to the Internet Society in opposition to the sale, which the National Council of Nonprofits and more than 11,000 others have already signed, also states, “Decisions affecting .org must be made with the consultation of the [nonprofit] community, overseen by a trusted leader. If the Internet Society can no longer be that leader, it should work with the [nonprofit] community and [ICANN] to find an appropriate replacement.”

What You Can Do

Nonprofits are encouraged to take one or more of the following actions to protect their .org domain names as well as the entire nonprofit community:

• Sign the letter in opposition to the sale found at SaveDotOrg.org.
• Join the discussion with the parties to the sale in a conference call hosted by NTEN on Thursday, December 5 at 3:00 pm Eastern.
• Spread the word to colleagues in your organization who handle your websites and urge them to get engaged.

Resources 

• Community Call: Internet Society Sale of Public Interest Registry / .ORG, NTEN (with co-presenters from Electronic Frontier Foundation and National Council of Nonprofits), December 5, 2019
• Sale of .org domain to private equity firm sparks battle over internet freedom, Financial Times, November 28, 2019.
• A private equity firm is buying all of the .org domains. Here’s what that means, CNN, November 27, 2019.
• The .ORG Controversy, or How a Private Equity Company WIll Manage a Nonprofit TLD, ICDSOFT, November 27, 2019. 
• As pressure builds over .org sell-off, internet governance orgs fall back into familiar pattern: Silence, The Register, November 26, 2019.
• Nonprofits Fight Sale of .org Registry, NonProfit Times, November 22, 2019.
• .org Websites Face Uncertain Future, Politico, November 22, 2019.
• Price Increases Expected After .org Registry Sold, NonProfit Times, November 21, 2019. 
• Nonprofits Fear Cost of .org Domain Names Will Rise Sharply, Wall Street Journal, November 20, 2019
• Internet world despairs as non-profit .org sold for $$$$ to private equity firm, price caps axed, The Register, November  20, 2019.
• Comments to the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), National Council of Nonprofits, April 26, 2019.