whitehouse.com is a

political Politics (from , ) is the set of activities that are associated with making decisions in groups, or other forms of power relations among individuals, such as the distribution of resources or status. The branch of social science that studies ...

entertainment Entertainment is a form of activity that holds the attention and interest of an audience or gives pleasure and delight. It can be an idea or a task, but is more likely to be one of the activities or events that have developed over thousa ...

website A website (also written as a web site) is a collection of web pages and related content that is identified by a common domain name and published on at least one web server. Examples of notable websites are Google Search, Google, Facebook, Amaz ...

that first came online in May 1996. According to a statement on the web, it was originally created by Ransom Scott as a known place where uncensored discussion of government policies could occur before adult content was added to make it more profitable. In June 2022, adult content was added back to the website.

Controversy

Part of the controversy about whitehouse.com was that users (especially minors in most cases) wishing to visit the website of the

White House The White House is the official residence and workplace of the president of the United States. It is located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., and has been the residence of every U.S. president since John Adams in 1800. ...

www.whitehouse.gov
could easily go to the adult website instead. Although

.gov The domain name gov is a sponsored top-level domain (sTLD) in the Domain Name System of the Internet. The name is derived from the word ''government'', indicating its restricted use by government entities. The TLD is administered by the Cyber ...

, a

top-level domain A top-level domain (TLD) is one of the domains at the highest level in the hierarchical Domain Name System of the Internet after the root domain. The top-level domain names are installed in the root zone of the name space. For all domains in ...

(TLD), is available only to official government sites in the United States,

.com The domain name .com is a top-level domain (TLD) in the Domain Name System (DNS) of the Internet. Added at the beginning of 1985, its name is derived from the word ''commercial'', indicating its original intended purpose for domains registere ...

is a much more common TLD and is frequently entered by mistake. Because of the explicit and commercial content of the site, it was frequently cited as one of the most egregious examples of

domain name A domain name is a string that identifies a realm of administrative autonomy, authority or control within the Internet. Domain names are often used to identify services provided through the Internet, such as websites, email services and more. As ...

misuse, up until the domain was sold. Many teachers and parents have been warned to emphasize to their students and children that if they wish to seek the White House website to use .gov rather than .com. The website

whitehouse.org WHITEHOUSE.ORG is a parody website, first registered in 1995, that has satirized the President of the United States intermittently since 1996. It is currently entitled TRUMP® WHITE HOUSE, and is published by Americatastic, Inc. Bill Clinton ...

, a humor site that formerly

satirized Satire is a genre of the visual, literary, and performing arts, usually in the form of fiction and less frequently non-fiction, in which vices, follies, abuses, and shortcomings are held up to ridicule, often with the intent of shaming or e ...

the former

U.S. president The president of the United States (POTUS) is the head of state and head of government of the United States of America. The president directs the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United States ...

George W. Bush, remains controversial for similar reasons, although less so because its content is usually much less explicit. In 2006, ''

PC World ''PC World'' (stylized as PCWorld) is a global computer magazine published monthly by IDG. Since 2013, it has been an online only publication. It offers advice on various aspects of PCs and related items, the Internet, and other personal tech ...

'' ranked Whitehouse.com #13 on its list of "The 25 Worst Web Sites".

Opposition

In December 1997, a

cease and desist A cease and desist letter is a document sent to an individual or business to stop alleged illegal activity. The phrase "cease and desist" is a legal doublet, made up of two near-synonyms. The letter may warn that, if the recipient does not dis ...

letter arrived from the White House, stating: "…we do not challenge your right to pursue it or to exercise your First Amendment rights, but we do challenge your right to use the White House, the President, and the First Lady as a marketing device. For adult internet users, that device is, at the least, part of a deceptive scheme. For younger Internet users, it has more disturbing consequences." The letter had no effect and the site stayed up.

Statuses and uses

In 2004, Dan Parisi decided to sell the domain, primarily because his son would be going into

kindergarten Kindergarten is a preschool educational approach based on playing, singing, practical activities such as drawing, and social interaction as part of the transition from home to school. Such institutions were originally made in the late 18th cent ...

the next year. The sale did not occur. As of 2003, Parisi was making

US$ The United States dollar (symbol: $; code: USD; also abbreviated US$ or U.S. Dollar, to distinguish it from other dollar-denominated currencies; referred to as the dollar, U.S. dollar, American dollar, or colloquially buck) is the official ...

1 million annually from the site alone. Parisi had said he did not want to sell the domain name to anyone in the adult entertainment industry, and even claimed to have turned down what was essentially a blank check from a buyer hiding his identity behind his broker. In November 2005, the domain appeared to be used for a

real estate Real estate is property consisting of land and the buildings on it, along with its natural resources such as crops, minerals or water; immovable property of this nature; an interest vested in this (also) an item of real property, (more general ...

site. In December 2005 it contained only

Google Google LLC () is an American multinational technology company focusing on search engine technology, online advertising, cloud computing, computer software, quantum computing, e-commerce, artificial intelligence, and consumer electronics. ...

ads, with a notice that a site for investigating people by checking their public records would be coming. In March 2006, whitehouse.com called itself "America's Free Speech Forum". It advertised a cartoon contest and presented links to

Associated Press The Associated Press (AP) is an American non-profit news agency headquartered in New York City. Founded in 1846, it operates as a cooperative, unincorporated association. It produces news reports that are distributed to its members, U.S. newspa ...

political news stories. In July 2006, the site was a real estate site again, and forwarded to www.house.com. As of November 2006, the site was a search engine for people, which searched over 90 million

White Pages A telephone directory, commonly called a telephone book, telephone address book, phonebook, or the white and yellow pages, is a listing of telephone subscribers in a geographical area or subscribers to services provided by the organization that ...

listings and 14 million

Yellow Pages The yellow pages are telephone directories of businesses, organized by category rather than alphabetically by business name, in which advertising is sold. The directories were originally printed on yellow paper, as opposed to white pages for ...

listings. As of June–October 2007, the site had once again changed and now claimed to be "your source for up-to-date information to help you keep track of the major party candidates for President." Until early 2009, the domain redirected to the previous real estate website again. The site was being used for home loan remodification and debt consolidation, with the disclaimer reading that is not "affiliated or endorsed by the U.S. Government". As of September 2009, the site was a local New Jersey-centered video hosting site. The site's main purpose was to host videos of local town hall meetings in New Jersey. As of July 2010, the site was a blank page with large black letters stating, "Future site of WhiteHouse.com" with no other information or link. As of Sept 2010, the site returned with the Banner Heading of WhiteHouseLawyers.com. The site's purported main purpose was to provide a search portal for personal injury / disability lawyers based on users location. But upon testing user input including name, phone, state, and e-mail, no listing of lawyers was provided. Later that month the site advertised financial aid opportunities. As of June 2011, the site again redirected to www.house.com. As of October 2015, the domain was parked, displayed a picture of the White House and text advertisement 'search results' relating to the White House, Washington D.C. or adult services. As of June 2016, the site displayed a blank page with black letters stating, "WhiteHouse.com Official Site". The subtext read, "Celebrating our 19th Anniversary (1997-2016)" and "World's Most Famous Adult Site coming back Summer 2016". As of April 2017, the site was once again parked, with similar content as in its October 2015 version. As of August 2017, the site was being used to protest the

Trump administration Donald Trump's tenure as the List of presidents of the United States, 45th president of the United States began with Inauguration of Donald Trump, his inauguration on January 20, 2017, and ended on January 20, 2021. Trump, a Republican Party ...

in the wake of the

Unite the Right rally The Unite the Right rally was a white supremacist rally that took place in Charlottesville, Virginia, from August 11 to 12, 2017. Marchers included members of the alt-right, neo-Confederates, neo-fascists, white nationalists, neo-Nazis, ...

. As of November 2017, the site was again a

parked domain ''Parked'' is a 2011 Irish drama film written by Ciaran Creagh and directed by Darragh Byrne about homelessness, friendship, and the will to survive adversity, whilst still retaining poise. It premiered at the 2010 Torino Film Festival Plot Having ...

. By January 2018, the site contained a collection of brief political news stories with the slogan "Where Hate does not Live!". The website claims to be owned and operated by WhiteHouse Network LLC.

WHOIS WHOIS (pronounced as the phrase "who is") is a query and response protocol that is widely used for querying databases that store the registered users or assignees of an Internet resource, such as a domain name, an IP address block or an autonomou ...

data suggests the domain is administrated by Dan Parisi. As of May 2020, the site was offering information about the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...

, plus an opinion poll on the Trump administration's handling of the COVID-19 crisis in the United States. It still listed "WhiteHouse Network LLC" as its owner. A misspelled disclaimer at the footer of the site claims "WhiteHouse Beta is not affiliated or endorsed by U.S. Gopvernment" ic As of January 2020, the site offers betting for senate and house election results. In 2022, the website relaunched as a "Adult & Free Speech Site" with adult content once again.

Legacy

This type of behavior with

trademark A trademark (also written trade mark or trade-mark) is a type of intellectual property consisting of a recognizable sign, design, or expression that identifies products or services from a particular source and distinguishes them from others ...

s led the

United States government The federal government of the United States (U.S. federal government or U.S. government) is the national government of the United States, a federal republic located primarily in North America, composed of 50 states, a city within a fede ...

to the passage of the

Anticybersquatting Consumer Protection Act The Anticybersquatting Consumer Protection Act (ACPA), 15 U.S.C. § 1125(d),(passed as part of ) is a U.S. law enacted in 1999 that established a cause of action for registering, trafficking in, or using a domain name confusingly similar to, or di ...

. The ACPA, however, protects only the registration of trademarks as domain names and would not help the U.S. government with the registration of the names of its offices or agencies.

References

External links