.sucks is an internet

domain registrar A domain name registrar is a company that manages the reservation of Internet domain names. A domain name registrar must be accredited by a generic top-level domain (gTLD) registry or a country code top-level domain (ccTLD) registry. A registr ...

company that controls the rights to sell .sucks domains.

.sucks domain names

.sucks domains are owned and controlled by the Vox Populi Registry. Vox Populi won the rights for .sucks gTLD in November 2014. Domains with .sucks names became available after the

Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN ) is an American multistakeholder group and nonprofit organization responsible for coordinating the maintenance and procedures of several databases related to the namespaces ...

approved the

generic top-level domain Generic top-level domains (gTLDs) are one of the categories of top-level domains (TLDs) maintained by the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) for use in the Domain Name System of the Internet. A top-level domain is the last level of ev ...

name (gTLD) in 2014 and assigned it to Vox Populi Registry Inc. in March 2015. Its primary use is apparently for

domain hacks A domain hack is a domain name that suggests a word, phrase, or name when concatenating two or more adjacent levels of that domain. For example, and , using the fictitious country-code domains ''.ds'' and ''.le'', suggest the words ''birds'' an ...

. The number of registrations and renewals of .sucks domains appears to be declining as of 2018.

Controversy

.sucks domains have generated controversy regarding potential

cybersquatting Cybersquatting (also known as domain squatting) is the practice of registering, trafficking in, or using an Internet domain name, with a bad faith intent to profit from the goodwill of a trademark belonging to someone else. The term is derived ...

, as individuals can purchase a trademarked domain with

bad faith Bad faith (Latin: ''mala fides'') is a sustained form of deception which consists of entertaining or pretending to entertain one set of feelings while acting as if influenced by another."of two hearts ... a sustained form of deception which ...

intent to sell the domain at an inflated price. Several celebrities and companies have purchased .sucks domains in order to protect their brands from potential exploitation, including

Taylor Swift Taylor Alison Swift (born December 13, 1989) is an American singer-songwriter. Her discography spans multiple genres, and her vivid songwriting—often inspired by her personal life—has received critical praise and wide media coverage. Bor ...

Apple An apple is an edible fruit produced by an apple tree (''Malus domestica''). Apple trees are cultivated worldwide and are the most widely grown species in the genus '' Malus''. The tree originated in Central Asia, where its wild ancesto ...

Facebook Facebook is an online social media and social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. Founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with fellow Harvard College students and roommates Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin ...

, and

Microsoft Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational technology corporation producing computer software, consumer electronics, personal computers, and related services headquartered at the Microsoft Redmond campus located in Redmond, Washing ...

. As a result of the company's pricing model, .sucks has been criticized for high costs associated with trademarked .sucks domains. In 2015, ICANN sent a letter to the U.S. Federal Trade Commission to investigate Vox Populi Registry for potentially illegal and predatory actions. The FTC concluded that Vox Populi did not break any rules, but pointed out that ICANN has previously ignored several concerns from the FTC on the topic of new domain names.

References

External links

* https://www.get.sucks/ — Official website {{GTLD Domain name registrars Internet properties established in 2015 Top-level domains