| Introduced | 1994 |
|---|---|
| TLD type | Country code top-level domain |
| Status | Active |
| Registry | KazNIC |
| Sponsor | Association of IT Companies of Kazakhstan |
| Intended use | Entities connected with Kazakhstan |
| Actual use | Popular in Kazakhstan |
| Registration restrictions | None for second-level names; some restrictions for third-level names depending on which second-level name they are under |
| Structure | Registrations are made directly at the second level, or at the third level beneath second-level categories |
| Documents | Rules |
| Dispute policies | Dispute resolution policy |
| Website | NIC.kz |
.kz is the Internet country code top-level domain (ccTLD) for Kazakhstan.
Registrations can be made directly at the second level (with no requirement of Kazakhstan presence) or at the third level beneath categories which have specific restrictions, and are generally limited to Kazakhstan-related entities.
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A minor incident was caused when the right to use the domain name www.borat.kz, the website of Sacha Baron Cohen's Kazakh character, Borat, was suspended.[1] The domain-issuing body said that they took this action since false names were given for the site's administrators, and also because the site www.borat.kz was hosted outside Kazakhstan. However, the underlying cause of the action was in order to censor the content of the site: "We've done this so he can't badmouth Kazakhstan under the .kz domain name," Nurlan Isin, President of the Association of Kazakh IT Companies, told Reuters. "He can go and do whatever he wants at other domains."
In June 2011, Google redirected [2] all traffic from google.kz to google.com in response to a demand issued by the Kazakh Ministry of Communications and Information that requires all .kz domain names to operate on physical servers within the borders of Kazakhstan. SVP Bill Coughran said "creating borders on the web raises important questions for us not only about network efficiency but also about user privacy and free expression." By hosting google.kz only on servers inside Kazakhstan, "we would be helping to create a fractured Internet."
A second country code top-level domain, .қаз ("kaz") has been requested for Kazakhstan.[3] It is assumed to used for web sites within year 2012, and to be used with web addresses using Cyrillic letters.