The desire to register catchy and memorable domain names is natural for companies and domain investors. However it is hardly possible to consider natural such registrations in which a company’s name is directly associated with terrorism. Nevertheless, Airbnb apparently decided to register “terrorist” domains. According to Domain Name Wire, on August 1, the following outrageous, at the least, domain names were registered: airbedandbombs.com, airbnbombs.com, airbnbterrorism.com, airbnbterrorist.com, airbombandbreakfast.com, terrorairbnb.com and terrorbnb.com. All of them include Airbnb in conjunction with such words as “bomb,” “terror,” “terrorism,” etc.
The registrations fueled the scandal around the company. Airbnb provides short-term rental services to individuals around the world. The company’s success hit the hotel business hard, and therefore large hotel chains and hospitality industry unions are fiercely fighting against Airbnb. Not so long ago, a video appeared on the internet almost directly indicating that the activities of Airbnb contribute to terrorism. It stated, in particular, that the perpetrator of the recent terrorist attack in Manchester used the services of renting private lodging, and that the Airbnb service does not involve any guest screening, and therefore can easily be used by criminals. These statements are doubtful, to put it mildly. For example, it has already been proven that the Manchester terrorist did not use Airbnb services. It is likewise obvious that document checks in hotels cannot guarantee that the guest is not a criminal.
Nevertheless, the video made quite a stir. Airbnb likely chose to use the practice of defensive registration ‒ to register domains that could be used in a campaign against it ‒ before someone else did so. Data of registrants of the above-mentioned domains are hidden by the Whois privacy protection service. However, they were all registered through MarkMonitor, a company that specializes in protecting corporate brands in the global network and domain space. Airbnb uses its services.
