This is the most controversial domain name on the Internet

Robert Hackett

Does the domain &#8216;dot sucks&#8217; belong on the internet?<div class="paywall-selector"></div><div class="paywall">
That&#8217;s the question that members of Congress, the Federal Trade Commission, and even of the organization that approved it in February&mdash;the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (Icann)&mdash;are now asking.
Some call the domain extortionary as it&#8217;s forcing businesses and others to pay a premium for &#8220;[name].sucks&#8221; website addresses&mdash;for fear that another malcontent will come along, snap up the name, and employ the site as a digital pillory for that brand, person, or firm. Whereas a typical new domain might cost less than $100, Vox Populi, the company that owns the rights to sell &#8220;dot sucks&#8221; domains, suggests $2,499, <a href="http://blogs.wsj.com/digits/2015/05/19/new-domain-sparks-icann-debate/">according to the Wall Street Journal</a>.
&#8220;Icann says it approved the .sucks domain because no one objected,&#8221; the Journal reports. &#8220;Now, it says doesn&rsquo;t have authority to block the domains or control the pricing.&#8221;
Those limitations led Icann last month to ask governmental authorities such as the Federal Trade Commission and the Office of Consumer Affairs in Canada to investigate Vox Populi&#8217;s practices. In fact, the controversy has flared just months before a proposal by the Obama administration would pass Icann&#8217;s regulatory responsibilities to &#8220;an undefined, international, &#8216;multi-stakeholder&#8217; body,&#8221; the Journal reports.
Not only does the future of &#8220;dot sucks&#8221; hang in the balance, so does the power of the non-profit partnership that has managed web domains for nearly two decades. Already, buyers have claimed such websites as &#8220;starbucks.sucks,&#8221; &#8220;jpm.sucks,&#8221; and &#8220;reeses.sucks,&#8221; according to the Vox Populi website, and top searches include: &#8220;TaylorSwiftsCat,&#8221; &#8220;YourMomma,&#8221; &#8220;Racism,&#8221; and &#8220;This.&#8221;
Here are the companies most sought after for a &#8220;dot sucks&#8221; address, according to Vox Populi:
<ol>
<li>Apple</li>
<li>Google</li>
<li>Microsoft</li>
<li>Facebook</li>
<li>Comcast</li>
<li>Walmast</li>
<li>CocaCola</li>
<li>McDonald&#8217;s</li>
<li>Sony</li>
<li>Amazon</li>
</ol>
A full list of available web domains approved by Icann can be found <a href="http://data.iana.org/TLD/tlds-alpha-by-domain.txt">here</a>. A quick skim through the catalog reassures one that &#8220;dot sucks&#8221; is likely the most controversial&mdash;certainly more so than &#8220;dot boats,&#8221; &#8220;dot cricket,&#8221; &#8220;dot ninja,&#8221; or &#8220;dot guitars.&#8221;
Second-most? Probably &#8220;dot exposed.&#8221;
The Vox Populi website&mdash;<a href="https://www.nic.sucks/">www.nic.sucks</a>&mdash;advertises its intention to &#8220;foster debate and share opinions.&#8221; That seems to be working.</div>

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