Nominet, the organisation that manages .uk domain registry, wishes to change its terms in order to remove domain holders who commit an offence under UK criminal law and to provide more support to UK law enforcers.
In a document found by The Register, Nominet wants a contractual basis to suspend accounts where the organisation has “reasonable grounds to be believe they are being used to commit a crime.” An example of such grounds includes a request from the UK Law Enforcement Agency.
Nominet also wants to discuss what information may be needed to offer to police in order to help identify when it should take action.
There are concerns, however, that this could lead to greater censorship on .uk domains across the web, as more control is being given to the police to revoke domain names.
The organisation wants to look at whether safeguards are necessary for terms to be implemented, such as an appeals process.
It would only act in that case “if the incident was urgent or the registrar failed to comply” with a request to remove the domain name by police.
The move has been championed by the Serious and Organised Crime Agency (SOCA).
