Parliamentarians want to keep system behind .nl domains in Netherlands

VVD, GroenLinks-PvdA, NSC, and Volt want the entire system behind the .nl domains to remain in the Netherlands and not go to the American Amazon. According to the parties, that would not be safe given the changing attitude of American President Donald Trump towards Europe.

The Stichting Internet Domeinregistratie Nederland (SIDN), which manages the .nl domains, wanted to move the system to the cloud of Amazon Web Services because maintaining the system is difficult and time-consuming. PVV Minister Dirk Beljaarts of Economic Affairs decided in January that only part of the system could be transferred to the American tech giant because, otherwise, SIDN would move an important part of the domestic online infrastructure to a large and powerful American company.

“The .nl domain is a kind of tricolor,” said Barbara Kathmann of GroenLiks-PvdA in a debate, arguing to keep the entire system domestic.

Jan Valize of the PVV disagreed with the other members of parliament. He said that a well-considered decision had been made to outsource tasks to companies that are better at it in order to save costs and time. According to him, it only concerned the part of the system where no IP addresses are stored, for example. That part would remain in the Netherlands. “Good agreements have been made, and it is continuously tested and monitored.”

Beljaarts said that only a limited part of the system will go to Amazon and that strict conditions will be attached to that. According to him, the advice of the AIVD was taken into account. SIDN also said that the system will return to the Netherlands as soon as an alternative is available, the Minister said.