Australian politics involving domain names
Cybersquatting doesn’t have to be about profit, as Australians are finding out.
According to the Australian publication, Western Australia Today, political games are being played alongside an upcoming referendum on introducing indigenous representation to the Australian parliament:
Pauline Hanson’s One Nation party is collecting web domains; some explicitly tied to its cause including NoToVoice.com, but others more generic including UluruStatement.org.au.
It’s a tactic known as cybersquatting, commonly used by marketers and politicians, usually to redirect traffic from rivals, block competitors or, in the case of scammers, extortionists, in hope of selling the domain for profit. For One Nation, the motivation is clearly political opportunism.
A press release by senator Pauline Hanson states that One Nation had already registered “46 website domain names” in preparation for what would be a comprehensive and urgent campaign to convince Australians to reject racism and separatism by voting ‘no’ to the proposed ‘voice to Parliament.
Some of these domains can be seen here via an ABC report.
Registering both positive and negative terms in a range of TLDs including .com and .org, is a strategic approach to protecting one’s brand, projects, and political positions.
Update: Upon further feedback from Australian domain investors, it’s important to note that Wikipedia describes One Nation as a “right-wing, populist party” with “far-right” political positions. One can now deduce the reasons behind these domain name registrations are unlikely to be aligned with rejecting racism and separatism.
