.SS
.ss is the ccTLD for South Sudan. It is managed by the National Communication Authority (NCA).[1]
Delegation History[edit | edit source]
South Sudan seceded from Sudan in July 2011. In August 2011, the “SS” two-letter country code was assigned for South Sudan in the ISO 3166-1 standard. The National Communication Authority (NCA) was established in 2012, which is answerable to the President of the Republic of South Sudan and under the direct supervision of the Competent Minister. The functions and powers of the Authority include regulating Internet domain names in South Sudan. On 21 August 2018, NCA commenced a request for the delegation of .ss (South Sudan) country-code top-level domain.
Rules and Restrictions[edit | edit source]
An applicant may reside in any legal jurisdiction
All second-level names used by the Registry are banned from being used as third level names (e.g. "com.com.ss" cannot be registered).
Also, all TLDs are banned from being used as third level names (e.g. "net.org.ss" and "org.com.ss" are not allowed).[2]
Reserved and Blocked Domain Names[edit | edit source]
A reserved name is a name that is not, and may not be, registered. Names may be reserved to enhance the stability and security of the DNS, and to preserve the public nature of well-known or widely-used names over which no- one holds and no-one should hold intellectual property rights.
For any domain name, a blocked name is a name that is considered to be offensive on the basis of race, colour, religion, sex, gender or any other grounds that are in the public interest.
No .ss domain may be used, directly or indirectly, for any purpose that is sexual or pornographic or that is against the statutory laws of any Nation.
Second-level Domain[edit | edit source]
The following second-level domains are available:
- .com.ss: for companies;
- .org.ss: for not-for-profit organizations or NGOs;
- .net.ss: for network devices;
- .me.ss: for personal names.
The following SLDs require supporting documents to register:
- .gov.ss: for government entities;
- .edu.ss: for institutions of higher education;
- .sch.ss: for lower and middle institutes of learning.[3]
Characters[edit | edit source]
The domain names must follow the following requirements:
- domain names must have a minimum of 3 characters;
- all domain names should not have more than 63 characters;
- domain names can consist of letters a-z and numbers 0-9.[2]
ccTLD Choice Controversy[edit | edit source]
South Sudan made the choice to apply for "ss" as their top-level domain. This decision caused some controversy because of the connection made in Europe between the letters ‘SS’ and the Nazi movement.[4] In this context, the initials stand for Schutzstaffel, a paramilitary organisation in Nazi Germany. Some observers have been concerned that if South Sudan were delegated .ss, the TLD could be commandeered by neo-Nazi groups.[5]