The internet is an unprecedented platform for speech, expression, commerce, entertainment, and more. But in recent years, the absence of rules and regulations in the digital realm upon which we depend offline has become increasingly problematic.
Digital Citizens has worked hard to shine a light on these abuses and the potential harms to consumers – whether it be exploiting social media platforms to advertise illegal COVID scams and recruit jihadists or demonstrating how piracy websites are used as bait to spread malware to consumers.
Abuse of consumer-facing platforms and websites like Facebook and YouTube understandably grabs the media and public's attention, given our familiarity with these services. But the internet is a much deeper and layered ecosystem of service providers which all play a role in the ultimate delivery of content and services to consumers – whether it be legitimate commerce or illegal and dangerous conduct or products and services.
Lesser known but vital players in this ecosystem are the companies that enable businesses, organizations, and individuals to establish a digital presence by acquiring a domain name. That industry is made up of registries, which administer hundreds of domain names such as .com, .org, and .biz and act as wholesalers; the domain name registrars, who offer specific domain names (such as digitalcitizensalliance.org) to consumers; and brokers, which operate in a robust secondary market where users can acquire a domain name that’s already registered.
There is a close relationship between the registrars that serve as a first step to acquiring a domain name and the brokers who fuel the secondary market. Registrars partner with brokers, as Namecheap does with Domain Agents, or offer to purchase the name on the secondary market itself on behalf of customers, as both GoDaddy and Network Solutions do.
... Yet, domain brokers – companies that help acquire already registered domain names via a robust secondary market – don’t hesitate to help would-be bad actors.
... Digital Citizens Alliance tested how domain brokers would react to trying to acquire such an obviously illicit domain ...
Read more > Download (PDF) Report
Source: Digital Citizens Alliance
Digital Citizens has worked hard to shine a light on these abuses and the potential harms to consumers – whether it be exploiting social media platforms to advertise illegal COVID scams and recruit jihadists or demonstrating how piracy websites are used as bait to spread malware to consumers.
Abuse of consumer-facing platforms and websites like Facebook and YouTube understandably grabs the media and public's attention, given our familiarity with these services. But the internet is a much deeper and layered ecosystem of service providers which all play a role in the ultimate delivery of content and services to consumers – whether it be legitimate commerce or illegal and dangerous conduct or products and services.
Lesser known but vital players in this ecosystem are the companies that enable businesses, organizations, and individuals to establish a digital presence by acquiring a domain name. That industry is made up of registries, which administer hundreds of domain names such as .com, .org, and .biz and act as wholesalers; the domain name registrars, who offer specific domain names (such as digitalcitizensalliance.org) to consumers; and brokers, which operate in a robust secondary market where users can acquire a domain name that’s already registered.
There is a close relationship between the registrars that serve as a first step to acquiring a domain name and the brokers who fuel the secondary market. Registrars partner with brokers, as Namecheap does with Domain Agents, or offer to purchase the name on the secondary market itself on behalf of customers, as both GoDaddy and Network Solutions do.
... Yet, domain brokers – companies that help acquire already registered domain names via a robust secondary market – don’t hesitate to help would-be bad actors.
... Digital Citizens Alliance tested how domain brokers would react to trying to acquire such an obviously illicit domain ...
Read more > Download (PDF) Report
Source: Digital Citizens Alliance
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