John,

More than 10 million websites are facing a private corporate takeover—but we still have time to stop it.

This is a little complicated, but here’s what’s going on:

Private equity firm Ethos Capital is trying to purchase control of the .ORG domain from the Internet Society, a nonprofit that was founded to protect the public interest as the Internet evolves.

Websites with a .ORG domain have been a reserved place on the Internet for organizations that are acting for the public good, and not commercial profits. If Ethos takes charge of the .ORGs, any number of terrible things could happen:

They would have access to the registration information for all organizations with a .ORG website. Ethos could sell this information to authoritarian states that want to silence dissent, or to groups that want to stop certain human rights efforts, putting these organizations and the people behind them in danger.¹
They could raise the price of registering a domain, which might make it hard for some nonprofits to establish their online presence, or for other organizations to maintain their current website. They could silence voices and perspectives.
They could censor groups by booting them off their domain—or even shut down all .ORG websites entirely.
They could start selling off .ORG web domains to anyone who wants them, without regard for the intended meaning of the domain

This sale could do serious harm to people and organizations that are trying to make the world a better place.

But there is still a chance that if there is enough backlash, the Internet Society will reverse its decision and protect .ORGs from the grasps of a money-hungry equity firm.

Send a message right now to the Internet Society: don’t sell off .ORG to Ethos Capital!

TAKE ACTION

More than 500 nonprofits from around the world, including the Girl Scouts of the USA, the YMCA, Farm Aid, and the National Council of Nonprofits, have already come together to fight this sale.²

But the Internet Society also needs to hear from non-organizational Internet users—people like you who also believe that .ORG sites should be protected because you see the value of having spaces for organizations acting in the interest of the greater good, protected from profit-hungry interests.

Take a minute to tell the Internet Society to stop this sale and to protect .ORG from private equity takeover!

For the Internet,

Caitlin at Fight for the Future

Footnotes:

1. Access Now: https://www.accessnow.org/warning-proposed-sale-of-the-tld-puts-org-registrant-data-at-risk/

2. SaveDotOrg: https://savedotorg.org/

Fight for the Future works to protect your rights in the digital age.