Go Daddy Dropping Domains in China

Two days after Google shut down its Chinese site, another Internet giant looks to shut the door on the Chinese.

Go Daddy said it plans to discontinue offering new “.cn” domain registrations in China because of the new Chinese government requirements introduced in December.

If you want to register a new .cn domain name in China, the Chinese government demands that you provide a color head shot, business identification, a Chinese business registration number and physical signatures on the registration forms. The registrar is required to forward this information package to the China Internet Network Information Center (CNNIC). Usually it just takes a simple sign up procedure with name, home/business address, email address and telephone number.

GoDaddy General Counsel and Executive Vice President Christine Jones said: “We are concerned for the security of the individuals affected by CNNIC’s new requirements, as well as for the chilling effect we believe the requirements will have on new .CN domain name Registrations.” This was part of Jones’ testimony to the Congressional-Executive Commission on China (CECC) slated for March 24th.

Jones added that Go Daddy will continue to manage the .CN domain names of existing customers.

Google on March 22, stated on it's blog that it will redirect most China-based search functions to Hong Kong, where Chinese censorship rules don't apply. Part of the blog reads:

So earlier today we stopped censoring our search services-Google Search, Google News, and Google Images-on Google.cn. Users visiting Google.cn are now being redirected to Google.com.hk, where we are offering uncensored search in simplified Chinese, specifically designed for users in mainland China and delivered via our servers in Hong Kong.