The regulation of abusive activity and content: a study of registries' terms of service

Sebastian Felix Schwemer

Internet Policy Review: Journal on Internet Regulation, 2020, vol. 9, issue 1, 1-22

Abstract: This paper studies the role of domain registries in relation to unlawful or unwanted use of a domain name or the underlying website content. It is an empirical and conceptual contribution to the online content regulation debate, with specific focus on European country code top-level (ccTLD) domain name registries. An analysis of the terms of service of 30 European ccTLD registries shows that one third of the registries contain some use-related provision, which corresponds to approximately 47% of registered domains. The analysis also turns towards examples of notice-and-takedown mechanisms, the emergence of proactive screening and the practice of data validation. Based on the analysis, it calls for more clarity and transparency regarding domain registries' role in content- or use-related takedowns.

Keywords: Content regulation; Domain names; Terms of Service (TOS); Takedown; Abuse (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:zbw:iprjir:214105

DOI: 10.14763/2020.1.1448

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