Islamic State Using Icelandic Domain Name

The Islamic State (IS) has a website registered under a .is domain name, and Icelandic government officials are looking for a way to shut the site down.

The website in question, khilafah.is, features news, photos, and videos from the Islamic State, primarily in British English. A “whois” search on the site shows it is registered to Azym Abdullah, who created the site on September 14. He has not responded to repeated inquiries from the media.

RÚV reports that the URL is registered with ISNIC, and hosted by Thor Data Center, which is in turn hosted by Advania. Shutting the site down, however, is not as simple as it might seem.

The managing director of ISNIC, Jens Pétur Jensson, told reporters that they can only shut the site down if they receive an order to do so from the Icelandic government. Normally, ISNIC can only shut down websites that contain malware, which khilafah.is does not appear to have.

Prime Minister and Minister of Justice Sigmundur Davíð Gunnlaugsson would not comment on the matter at the time of this writing. However, it has been confirmed that the Ministry of Justice is reportedly looking into the matter.

UPDATE: ISNIC has announced that they have closed down access to the site at 18:40 Icelandic time. This is the first time ISNIC has taken such a decision, which they base on company regulations that all .is sites follow Icelandic law. Access to the site was still possible at the time of this writing, about an hour after the ISNIC announcement was made, but ISNIC officials say a complete shutting down of the site may take several hours.