Individuals may get ".cn" names again

BEIJING, Jan. 19 -- The Chinese industry regulator is considering reopening ".cn" domain name registration for individual applicants.

The service was banned last month during a government-led Internet supervision campaign.

An official from Internet Network Information Center (CNNIC) told China Daily Monday that the semi-official organization is drafting a regulation to allow individuals to register ".cn" domain names with their own identity.

"It's a trend that individuals register their own domain names," said Qi Lin, assistant deputy from CNNIC.

"We are now working to check whether individual registrars' information is true, complete and accurate, and based on this we can quicken our speed in drawing up the regulation on individual domain name registration."

The move came after CNNIC last month barred individuals from registering ".cn" domain names and required an applicant to have an enterprise license.

That has pushed many Chinese individual applications to register with foreign domain.

"Banning domain name registrations for individual applicants will have a negative impact on the industry because the applicants can either turn to foreign registers or apply with false information," Qi said.

But he refused to disclose when the new regulation would be rolled out.

CNNIC announced a ban on individual domain name registration after China Central Television aired a program last month claiming that many ".cn" websites provided pornographic content.