An Unreliable Seal of Approval

PUBLIC INTEREST REGISTRY (PIR), a U.S. nonprofit that owns and manages all .org domains and advocates for internet-related policy issues, markets its well-known suffix as “one of the most trusted domains” that “has enabled people and organizations the world over to establish their trusted online identity.” Indeed, many websites tout their .org address as evidence that they meet some standard of trustworthiness.

In fact, there are no such standards. An analysis by NewsGuard, a service which rates