‘Dirty Dozen List’ names 12 companies profiting off sexual exploitation
Verisign
Based in Reston, Virginia, and centered on providing domain name registry services, Verisign made the list because it manages websites that include child sexual abuse material.
NCOSE noted that although other registrar websites were “disrupting domains associated with child sexual abuse material, Verisign fails to take meaningful action and instead inhibits attempts to protect children.”
“Verisign’s contracts with registrars also gives it the right to shut down secondary domains at the root if they are hosting illegal material such as child sexual abuse material,” the group explained.
“Verisign instead puts the onus completely on the registrars to do this and claims they couldn’t do it anyway because they don’t have a ‘Thick WHOIS.’”
NCOSE added that “because Verisign refuses to implement a Thick WHOIS, Verisign simply claims they don’t have the ability to give law enforcement the information needed or to shut off known secondary domains hosting CSAM because they don’t have access to that information.”
