Texas wins court order to suspend domain name for violating age-verification law
Points and comments are a snapshot, not live.
Texas obtained a court order to lock motherless.com's domain for violating age-verification laws.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton secured a court-ordered writ directing Verisign, the .com domain registry, to lock the motherless.com domain after its owner, Kick Online Entertainment, ignored a lawsuit and default judgment requiring age verification. The company, incorporated in Luxembourg, had refused to comply. The domain may be replevied only if Kick posts a $9.14 million bond and implements age verification. Paxton called the order a precedent for enforcing age-verification laws against foreign operators.
What commenters are saying
Commenters split on the jurisdictional implications. Some argued that serving Texas users constitutes operating in Texas, citing the site's harmful content. Others countered that this sets a dangerous precedent, allowing a single state to seize a global domain for violations of state law, and questioned whether Verisign would comply. A correction noted that the U.S. government has previously declared authority to seize .com domains from Verisign, but several commenters emphasized this is a state, not federal, action.