If you’re running for election, secure your website domain early

What you need to know:

  • That is how the internet world works, purely on a first come, first served basis.
  • The burden of proof is therefore on the complainant wishing to reclaim the domain name, as it were.
  • Cybersquatters, it turns out, have upped their game and know what to do once they find a preferred, popular name already taken.

Election season has a way of bringing out the best and the worst from each of us. As we move towards next year’s general election, the digitally savvy are being creative, and positioning themselves accordingly.

Last week an internet domain name called ‘Uhuru.co.ke’ went up for sale. Anyone with 10,000 euros or approximately one million shillings is free to visit the site and buy it.

It is too early to say whether this is a case of cybersquatting, unless someone, perhaps in the political arena, complains that this domain belongs to them.

Still, such a complaint would be difficult to justify. The current owner would likely claim that ‘Uhuru’ is an innocent Swahili word that means “freedom”. It therefore does not belong to anyone in particular.

That is how the internet world works, purely on a first come, first served basis. If you are creative enough to think of potential contestants at the national or county level in next year’s elections, you are free to register those names, since no one can stop you.

If your predictions come to pass, and that specific domain name matches the one a contestant for governor wants to use next year, well, you have the domain and the contestant will probably have to talk to you – financially.

Indeed, a dispute resolution policy has been published by KENIC, the managers of the ".ke" namespace. Such disputes are almost always resolved in favour of the person who claimed the name first.

ALREADY REGISTERED

The burden of proof is therefore on the complainant wishing to reclaim the domain name, as it were. They must show why the name is justifiably theirs.

As an example, www.kidero.co.ke was not yet registered by the time this blog was published. One could register this domain and subsequently offer it up for sale in anticipation that Governor Kidero may want to use it.

Under the existing dispute resolution mechanism, whoever registers the domain first can always claim that "Kidero" is in fact a common name in certain parts of this country and therefore does not necessarily belong to H.E. Dr Evans Kidero, the Governor of Nairobi.

Indeed, someone has already registered www.kidero.com and is already offering it up for sale.  Disputes over internet domains that end with “.ke” are resolved locally, while those ending with “.com” are resolved internationally.

In other words, your chances of reclaiming a “.com” internet name are far lower than those of reclaiming a “.ke” internet name, since the arbitrators are abroad.

Cybersquatting, as this practice is known, has finally caught up with us in a big way. You can chose to ignore the offer, of course, but at the risk of having your digital campaigns hampered by ill-fitting web addresses.

WORTH MONETISING

The best way to avoid cybersquatting is to have your political or business team pre-empt it, by registering their preferred names in advance. This effort has to include various digital platforms, including the web and user names on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and other networks.

That will reduce, but not eliminate, the risk. Cybersquatters, it turns out, have upped their game and know what to do once they find a preferred, popular name already taken.

They simply register the "nearest" sounding domain name. For example, since Microsoft.com is already taken, nothing stops cybersquatters from registering "Micrasoft.com", with an "a". 

The idea here is that users wishing to visit the real Microsoft.com may occasionally mistype and end up on the Micrasoft.com site, offering products totally unrelated to the genuine Microsoft. In digital marketing, the population of users making this typo is quite significant and worth monetising.

So if you are running for elective office next year, make sure your digital team is assembled early and up to the task. Alternatively, spare a significant budget for recovering your preferred, but unavailable, domain names.

Mr Walubengo is a lecturer at the Multimedia University of Kenya, Faculty of Computing and IT. Email: [email protected], Twitter: @jwalu