Domain names containing the word “reopen” are being registered en masse in the US. Apparently, a wave of such registrations has been triggered by tough restrictions that were introduced by the US authorities due to the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic. In most cases, the word “reopen” is combined with a geographical name, be it the name of a city, a state or even the entire country –reopeningamerica.com, reopenusa.com, reopenvegas.com, reopenmissouri.com, etc. In other cases, it is linked with different activities: reopenbusiness.com, or reopenmyrestaurant.com . The list is long. According to Domain Gang, over 500 similar domains were registered over a period of the past few days and their number continues to grow.
Many of them remain parked but others are used for agitprop in favor of the same idea of “reopening.” Websites created on these domains demand the lifting of isolation measures introduced by the authorities for the period of the pandemic. Some websites publish appeals for actions of protests against the restrictions. Some analysts believe that this may be a coordinated action engineered by some conservative political groups that are probably linked with the pro-gun advocates. But some examples are the opposite. Thus, domain investor Michael Murphy told Mother Jones that he has already spent a lot to register reopen domains with the exact opposite goal. He is indignant at all the attempts to demand the lifting of the lockdown in the belief that they may expand the spread of the coronavirus in the US. By registering such domains, the investor simply makes it impossible for irresponsible people and political groups to use them.
