.gq

Overview

• .gq is the country-code top-level domain (ccTLD) assigned to Equatorial Guinea.
• Managed and sponsored by GETESA (the national ISP and registry operator).
• The registry allows emoji domain names.
• Actual use is relatively rare and much of the use is not based in Equatorial Guinea.

History

• Introduced and delegated on 10 July 1997; operated by GETESA.
• In October 2014 Freenom partnered with GETESA to relaunch .gq with a business model that included offering free registrations.
• A sunrise period for trademark holders preceded the public launch; public registrations began on 1 January 2015.
• Following Freenom's lawsuit with Meta and its settlement in 2024, Freenom announced plans to exit the domain business, leaving the future of its role in .gq registrations unclear.

Usage and Audience

• Intended for entities connected with Equatorial Guinea, but most use is external to the country.
• Common uses (as reported) include low-cost or free registrations; the free model attracted large-scale registrations.
• The TLD has been prone to malicious use (spam, phishing and other abuse) due to the availability of low-cost/free registrations.

Registration Rules

• Open registry: any individual or legal entity may register a .gq domain.
• No limit on the number of registrations per registrant.
• Registrations are available as free or paid offerings (free domains subject to content restrictions).
• Paid registrations confer legal ownership and have no activity requirement (per registry terms).
• The registry permits emoji domain names.
• Dispute policy: UDRP is applied to paid domains (UDRP applies to paid registrations only).
• Content restrictions for free-domain eligibility (registry content policy) exclude domains whose public content falls into categories such as:
  • racism and violent or extremist propaganda
  • insults or vulgar/hate content
  • adult/pornographic material (with limited exceptions like non-explicit swimwear/lingerie)
  • drugs and promotion/sale of alcohol or tobacco products
  • weapons and terrorism promotion or sale
  • gambling and casino sites (monetary betting)
  • sites distributing viruses, spyware or other harmful code
  • domain parking (pages showing only ads, under-construction or coming-soon pages)
  • non-existent or inaccessible pages (empty/error pages, pages blocked by firewall/VPN preventing public verification)

SEO and Brand Impact

• The free-registration model and high prevalence of malicious sites have negatively affected the TLD's reputation and perceived trustworthiness.
• A Symantec (NortonLifeLock) analysis reported that 92% of the top 50 .gq sites were used for "shady" purposes, and that 98.94% of surveyed .gq sites were malicious, indicating major abuse concerns.
• These abuse statistics can harm brand perception for legitimate sites using .gq and may affect deliverability, blocklisting, or trust signals.

Notable Cases or Examples

• Freenom relaunch (Oct 2014) and public registration opening (1 Jan 2015) were major milestones in the TLD's recent history.
• The Freenom vs Meta lawsuit and subsequent 2024 settlement led Freenom to announce an exit from the domain business, creating uncertainty about future registration operations for .gq.
• The registry's allowance of emoji domain names is a notable technical feature.

% IANA WHOIS server
% for more information on IANA, visit http://www.iana.org
% This query returned 1 object

domain:       GQ

organisation: GETESA
address:      Calle Rey Boncoro N 219 APDO 494
address:      Malabo
address:      Equatorial Guinea

contact:      administrative
name:         CTO
organisation: GETESA S.A.
address:      Calle Rey Boncoro N 219 APDO 494
address:      Malabo
address:      Equatorial Guinea
phone:        +240222100110
e-mail:       inocencio.ndong@getesa.gq

contact:      technical
name:         Jefe Departamento Sistemas
organisation: GETESA S.A.
address:      Calle Rey Boncoro N 219 APDO 494
address:      Malabo
address:      Equatorial Guinea
phone:        +240222254117
e-mail:       sabino.nsue@getesa.gq

nserver:      A.NS.GQ 185.21.168.65 2a04:1b00:10:0:0:0:0:1
nserver:      B.NS.GQ 185.21.169.65 2a04:1b00:11:0:0:0:0:1
nserver:      C.NS.GQ 185.21.170.65 2a04:1b00:12:0:0:0:0:1
nserver:      D.NS.GQ 185.21.171.65 2a04:1b00:13:0:0:0:0:1

whois:        whois.dominio.gq

status:       ACTIVE
remarks:      Registration information: http://www.dominio.gq

created:      1997-07-10
changed:      2023-08-14
source:       IANA