The move towards censorship in New Zealand

Suspensions policy written for .nz websites in wake of Christchurch terror attack

Stuff.co.nz,

17 April, 2019

In the wake of the Christchurch mosque attacks, managers of the .nz internet domain have drawn up a policy that would allow addresses ending in .nz to be suspended in "emergency or exceptional circumstances".

InternetNZ, the manager of the .nz country code top level domain, made an interim policy change on Tuesday covering the response to events such as a terrorist or cyber security attack, or force majeure event.

It applies to cases where the use of the .nz domain space is causing, or may cause, irreparable harm to any person or the operation of the .nz domain space.

The policy change makes it clear domain name commissioner Brent Carey can temporarily transfer, suspend or lock a domain name registration. Action taken has to be proportionate to the harm.

Any action taken by the commissioner under the provision would be made public as soon as possible, including the nature of the incident involved, and the timeframe for which a temporary approach was anticipated to be in force.

The commissioner works for the Domain Name Commission, which was appointed by InternetNZ to, among other things, create a fair environment for the management of .nz domain names.

The interim policy change gave InternetNZ six months for a broader discussion and consideration of how to handle unexpected events, InternetNZ chief executive Jordan Carter said in a blog post.

"What .nz policy should say in the long term is something we are asking the .nz policy review panel to address, in the comprehensive review of .nz policy that is currently kicking off," he said.

"None of this signals an intent by InternetNZ to get into decisions about content in a general sense." But the .nz policy review would consider those issues.

Carey said any move on his part to suspend a domain name would in all probability follow a request, and logically those requests would come from the Department of Internal Affairs, government cyber security agency Cert NZ. or a court.

Mostly domain names were suspended or cancelled in such cases as people providing fake contact details when they registered names.

"The situation in Christchurch took us into a different territory," Carey said. "I think it's important for the health of the .nz space to have something like this up our sleeve."

Carter said the key point of the new policy was that it provided emergency powers to respond quickly. "It's not to cancel the domain name. So it's not impossible to reverse the situation if circumstances require it to be undone."

Generally, InternetNZ would take down a domain name if ordered to by a court, but it didn't want to be in the position to be making decisions about such things as copyright infringement, scams or hate speech.

"For us and a lot of other country code registries, there's been a pretty strong line to say we're not experts about content, we don't want to become judge and jury about what's on websites," Carter said.

Despite describing the Christchurch mosque attacks that killed 50 people as "a really terrible event", Facebook isn't keen to introduce delays on its livestream feeds.

A comprehensive review of .nz policy was getting under way, to be run by a panel of up to 12 people, and it would look at all the issues people had raised about the policy framework.

"Some people think the domain name registry should take an interest in copyright enforcement, or hate speech, or scams," Carter said. "Any issue raised by anyone will get considered."

Cert NZ said the new policy would allow it to work more closely and efficiently with the commission in times of emergency, and ensure reports involving objectionable material were prioritised and actioned.

"Cert NZ and the Domain Name Commission primarily work together on taking down phishing websites that are misrepresenting New Zealand.

"In the wake of the Christchurch tragedy, we're also aware that we all have a role to play together in ensuring that the correct agencies are aware of instances of objectionable material being available online, and will work closely with the Domain Name Commission, the Department of Internal Affairs and other agencies to make sure appropriate steps are taken."