ICANN has announced its satisfaction with the measures taken by the registry of the new generic top level domain .TOP to address previously reported violations. In April of last year, ICANN issued the .TOP Registry a formal notice of contractual non-compliance. The concerns revolved around numerous discrepancies between the registry’s policies and ICANN’s requirements for combating domain abuse. Specifically, the .TOP Registry had ignored complaints regarding abusive domain registrations, including requests filed under the Uniform Rapid Suspension (URS) procedure. The registry also failed to respond to inquiries from cybersecurity professionals, and its website lacked even basic contact information for reporting domain abuse.
ICANN typically allows one month to resolve violations outlined in such notices. However, in the case of .TOP, the deadline was repeatedly extended through negotiations with the registry. As a result, the process dragged on for nearly a year. Nevertheless, ICANN appears pleased with the outcome: a statement published on the corporation’s blog confirms that the .TOP Registry has demonstrated a commitment to combating abusive domain practices in full compliance with ICANN policies. The corporation also noted a significant decline in complaints concerning .TOP domain names since April of this year.
Meanwhile, Domain Incite, reporting on the development, observes that the situation regarding domain abuse in the new .TOP gTLD remains far from ideal. Even a cursory review of registered domain names reveals that a substantial portion consists of random character strings devoid of meaning in any language. These are clearly disposable domains, registered by malicious actors for illicit activities.
This trend is attributed to the low cost of .TOP domain registrations, which at most registrars do not exceed a couple of dollars per year. Spammers, hackers, and fraudsters can thus easily afford to register vast quantities of domains. Over the past year alone, .TOP registrations surged by 1.2 million – the highest growth rate among all gTLDs.
