What if the .com police come knocking?
Have you ever thought about who has final control over your domain name?
There are several layers to this control hierarchy, the main ones being:
- What the top level domain is: .com, .nl, .eu, .info, …
- Where you purchased and registered the domain name. This is the registrar, like gandi.net in France or namecheap.com in the U.S.
If any of these are managed from an unpredictable jurisdiction, you could be at risk of losing ownership or control.
Let’s look at the top level domain (TLD), which is the one most people skip when analysing risk.
ICANN is an American non-profit that coordinates all “generic” TLDs (like .com, .net, .org) which it contracts with registry operators. In the case of .com, it’s a U.S. corporation called Verisign.
Because both ICANN and Verisign are subject to U.S. jurisdiction, a legal order could request the seizure, locking, or modification of your domain records. This has already happened.
Most seizures up until now have been linked to criminal activity. But, with the current unpredictability of the Trump administration, who’s to say they won’t decide that European sites are anti-American propaganda or that .coms are for Americans only?
The chance is low, but you should have a backup plan in place.
My recommendation is to grab a local (.be, .fr, .es, …) or European (.eu) domain, ideally the same as your .com. Then point it at your current setup. If things go bad, you can announce the change and avoid expensive interruptions.
Even better, switch to that new domain and redirect the old .com to it. Wear your local roots on your sleeve!
Colin