.tk

.tk

Introduced	7 November 1997
TLDtype	Country code top-level domain
Status	Active
Registry	Dot TK (run by BV Dot TK)
Sponsor	Government of Tokelauand Teletok
Intended use	Entities connected withTokelau
Actual use	Sees some use, mostly not in Tokelau
Registration restrictions	Yes, for free domains only
Structure	Registrations are taken directly at the second level; domains are redirected to actual website addresses within a frame, or point directly to a webserver or nameserver.
Documents	Registration Agreement (free domains) Registration Agreement (paid domains)
Dispute policies	UDRP(paid domains only)
Registry website	Dot.TK

.tkis theInternetcountry codetop-level domain(ccTLD) forTokelau,a territory ofNew Zealandin theSouth Pacific.

The.tk TLD is managed by Teletok, a local telecommunications company who outsourced thedomain registryoperation to a Dutch company Freenom, who was additionally also acting as a registrar. As Freenom offered free registration, the.tk ending was often associated with malicious activities like phishing, spam andcybersquatting.In 2023, Freenom stopped offering new.tk registrations in their registrar business as a result of a lawsuit with Meta. Their registry operations for other registrars were not affected by this. Freenom announced it would exit the domain registry and registrar business in February 2024.

Teletok opened negotiations with the domain registry operator of.nz, for help in managing.tk after Freenom's exit.

Overview

Tokelau allows any individual to register domain names. Users and small businesses were able to register any number of domain names free of charge (with some restrictions).In addition to the name itself, users can opt to forward their web traffic usingHTML framesand their email traffic, with a maximum of 250 addresses per user log in, or use fullDNS,either via their own or third-party servers, or by using Dot TK's servers. There are content restrictions for free domains, banning sites containingsexual content,druguse,hate speech,firearms,and spam orcopyright infringement.Dot TK requires free domains to have a regular traffic of visitors, and if a domain's redirect target does not work (even temporarily) the domain is taken offline. If a domain violates any of these terms, it is replaced by aSedoadvertisement page, and no advance warning is given.

Dot TK also provides.tkwebsiteswith the option to join a network called TiKinet, a close-knit network that links sites to each other based on keywords called TiKilinks. The network is expected to increase traffic to the websites, many of which are personal sites andblogsoperated by individuals who otherwise would have no way to advertise their sites.

To be able to get a "special".tk domain name the user must buy it. This includes trademark domain names for mostFortune 500companies and common dictionary terms. Paid domain names cost US$19.90 for the first two years. Potentially valuable names with fewer than 4 characters are similarly unavailable for free registration and must generally be purchased at a premium price of over $1000.

Dot TK launched a new service called TweaK forTwitterusers in April 2010, offering a URL shortening service that uses less space than many others, and forFacebookwhere the user can rename Facebook account pages with a.tk name.

In 2016, Nominet released a world map where each country was resized according to the popularity of its top-level domain. The.tk domain ranked first worldwide with 31,311,498 registered domain names (China (.cn) ranked 2nd with 16,810,737 registered domain names). The revenues from the.tk top-level domain business represent about1⁄6of the island's annual income.

Criticism

In 2006,McAfeeconducted a survey in which they claim out of the 95 percent mosttraffickedweb sites,.tk domains were twice as likely as the global average to be used for "unwanted behaviours", includingscamssuch asphishingandspam.However, in 2008McAfeereported that the threat of scams likephishingandspamwas significantly reduced with.tk and that other top level domains such asand.netwere much more used in such scams.

A 2011 report by theAnti Phishing Working Groupblamed Tokelau's bad reputation on the registry Dot TK. It acquired the right to operate the top level domain and is responsible for the current free registration system..tk domains logged 2533 of 11768 (~21.5%) total phishing attacks in the second half of 2010 Internet-wide.

A 2018 report by Michelle Base-Bursey stated that, "The third most prevalent TLD for phishing attacks is.tk, the country code for Tokelau, a territory north of New Zealand in the South Pacific."

As of 2016,.cc,,.pw,and.tk domain names accounted for 75% of all malicious domain registrations.

On 3 March 2023,Metafiled a lawsuit against Freenom allegingcybersquattingviolations and trademark infringement, and new domain registrations were halted.The lawsuit references a 2021 study on the abuse of domains conducted by Interisle Consulting Group, which discovered that the ccTLDs operated by Freenom made up five of the top ten TLDs most abused byphishers.In November 2023,ICANNterminated its registrar accreditation agreement with Freenom due to failure to cure breaches of the agreement within 21 days of notice.On 12 February 2024, Freenom announced that it had settled the lawsuit with Meta under undisclosed terms, and that it would exit the domain name and registry business.

By early March 2024, around 99% of Freenom domains (mostly those under.tk,.cf,and.gq), roughly 12.6 million, were no longer accessible, although it was reported that some paid domains were still active. Most of these domains hosted their DNS withCloudflare,which consequently saw a 22% drop in its number of hosted domains.

External links

• IANA.tk whois information
• .tk Registration