Earlier in March 2017 global domain leader Verisign was given approval to restrict who can register .com and .net domains in various countries. China will be the first to be affected by the change.

ICANN gave Verisign ‘free to deploy’ notice for a new verification code system. Under this system, Verisign can prevent domains registered with selected registrars from resolving unless the registrant is verified and unless it’s not on China’s banned list. Also, under this system Verisign uses ICANN records to find out which registrars are based in countries that have government restrictions.

This means that these selected registrars will register domains in the usual way but unless there’s a verification code in the registration, Verisign will not allow them to resolve keeping them out of the zone file. Verification codes are provided by third party service providers.

Verisign gained approval to operate in China in August 2016. .Vip, .club, .xyz .site and .shop were the next approved gTLDs during the last few months.

To learn more about domain registration, go to <What you should Know before Registering your Domain>.
For more .com domain news, visit <.Com gets Thick Whois under a New Policy> and <Domain Name Registrations Reached 329.3 Million in the Last Quarter of 2016>.