World News Pandemic Shows Why .Org Domains Are Important

The Los Angeles Times published an op-ed by the executive director of Access Now, a global organization that works to protect privacy, free expression, digital security and human rights among internet users. Now that the sale of the .org registry has been blocked, he explains why that matters.

As the pandemic has shown, it has been left to civil society organizations, and individual volunteers, to step up and fill the gaps left by governments and corporations. Large organizations such as Doctors Without Borders, the International Red Cross and the United Nations provide direct, immediate support to hospitals and healthcare professionals. Neighborhood and grass-roots organizations have distributed meals and provided accommodation and friendship to the sick and vulnerable. These organizations range in size, mission, effectiveness and reach, but have two elements in common: They’re working toward the betterment of society, and their websites end in dot-org…

From downloading government health guidelines to online learning to connecting with isolated friends and family, the internet has become a lifeline. It has become the town square, the hospital and the schoolyard all at once. Now was clearly the time to protect it, not sell it off to private equity…. Private companies cannot be trusted to not “increase the rent” on small organizations. Private companies do not spend $1.1 billion on an internet domain unless there is profit to be made…

What happens next isn’t clear. If the Internet Society no longer wants to control the dot-org domain, an alternative will need to be found… To find this special home, we’ll need an open process, innovative ideas and committed partners — all of which we’ve built over the last few, wild months.