LPVN IT Design Co., Ltd. (Ho Chi Minh City) has submitted a request to the Vietnam Internet Center for the domain hinhsex.com.vn with the intention of increasing traffic to its advertising website. However, entering that address in a browser only reveals content that provides pornographic images online.
A screenshot of the interface of hinhsex.com.vn.
Screenshot taken at 2:50 PM on July 17.
With several folders like: Sex, DVDs, Worldsex, Shopping, Jobs, Musicdownloads, the address hinhsex.com.vn contains numerous links to pornographic websites along with images or videos of an obscene nature, without any information about LPVN IT Design Co., Ltd. or the identity of the site’s owner. Meanwhile, the information on the website of the Vietnam Internet Center (VNNIC) clearly states that the domain hinhsex.com.vn was granted to LPVN Co., Ltd. on July 13, 2006, with an expiration date one year later – July 13, 2007.
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Domain registration information for hinhsex.com.vn is published on the VNNIC website. |
The registration of domains and their misuse or pointing to websites with content against the law is a common occurrence. However, hinhsex.com.vn is a rather sensitive domain and the fact that it points to a website with content contrary to social morals is quite unusual.
In an interview with VnExpress, Mr. Tran Minh Tan, Deputy Director of VNNIC, stated that since the passage of the IT Law, for domains considered sensitive, VNNIC’s stance is to retain only independent terms such as: xxx, sex, sextour, sexshow, or names with Vietnamese diacritics that violate social morals.
“LPVN Co., Ltd. registered the hinhsex domain with the aim of increasing traffic to this business’s advertising website. We evaluated and granted it to LPVN in accordance with the law“, said Mr. Tan. “With hundreds of domains related to ‘sex’, we cannot oversee all of them. Therefore, each domain holder when granted a domain by VNNIC is committed and must take full responsibility for how they use that resource“.
A VNNIC representative confirmed that the Center only grants domains like hinhsex.com.vn to organizations and does not review applications from individuals. “For example, in the case of the ‘cholon’ domain, despite being sensitive, we also granted it to the Committee for Chinese Affairs, a unit under the Ho Chi Minh City People’s Committee, because it was deemed entirely suitable for their purpose“, Mr. Tan cited as an example.
The Deputy Director of VNNIC also mentioned that the Center has a post-licensing department and regularly checks the operations of granted domains. However, when speaking with VnExpress this afternoon, Mr. Tan was still unaware of the content of the website hinhsex.com.vn. “If there is obscene content on the website, the entity will have to take responsibility with the Ministry of Culture and Information. VNNIC will review the matter and depending on the specific situation, take action such as revoking domain usage rights or more severe measures…“, Mr. Tan affirmed.
Nguyen Hang
