The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers ICANN wants to change rules of domain refistration with the goal to ban resource registration that "shall promote hatred, racism, discrimination of any sort, criminal activity, or any abuse of specific religions or cultures."

ICANN new rules affect domains like .edu, .com or .net. An ICANN group called the Generic Names Supporting Organization also wants to limit similar domain registration.

Gross and others on the NCUC argue that words like "abortion," "gay," "herb," and "john" could be prevented under the proposed rules, and that such restrictions would force ICANN into the role of making explicit political judgments about what is and is not appropriate for the entire worldwide Internet community.