New porn site suffix expected to go ahead

The creation of a new .xxx domain, dedicated exclusively to websites containing pornographic content is likely to be announced today. The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), the company that oversees the provision of certain web addresses on behalf of the US government is expected to announce the creation of a new generic ‘.xxx’ suffix dedicated exclusively to websites containing pornographic content. It is proposed that suffix will be available, on a voluntary basis, only for websites hosting adult content.

Reuters is reporting that, while ICANN has repeatedly rejected calls for a dedicated pornography domain suffix in the past, concerns over neutrality in domain name assignations has led to reconsideration of the proposal, with the group expected to make a formal announcement today.

Update (March 2011): ICANN has now announced that the .xxx domain has been given the green light.