Press Release | 07.08.2000

Right-extremist domain deleted

 On Monday, DENIC proceeded to close down the domain "heil-hitler.de". This domain was registered through a web host called Strato on 3 August. DENIC, the central .de domain registry, had its attention drawn to the registration on Monday morning and decided to remove the domain, since its name constitutes a manifest criminal offence and thus cannot be registered, as laid down in DENIC'S Domain Terms and Conditions.

With some 200,000 new registrations every month (corresponding to an average of one new domain every 15 seconds) it is clearly not possible for DENIC to check the names of domains prior to registration. Registration jobs are submitted to DENIC electronically by Internet providers. So any check could only be carried out by the providers themselves, given that they have direct contacts with their customers. However, as soon as DENIC becomes aware of any breach of the law, it initiates appropriate measures.