Gabon government has suspended the website www.me.ga, which Kim Dotcom was planning to use to launch a sequel to its banned Megaupload file-sharing site.
The West African nation said it is suspending the site anticipating that it could be used to host copyright infringing files.
Gabon Communication Minister Blaise Louembe said that he has instructed his departments to immediately suspend the site www.me.ga to protect intellectual property rights" and "fight cyber crime effectively.
"Gabon cannot serve as a platform or screen for committing acts aimed at violating copyrights, nor be used by unscrupulous people," Louembe said.
The new site was planned to be hosted on Gabon’s .ga domain, but Louembe said the domain name is owned by a person in France who had then shifted to Dotcom.
Earlier this month Kim Dotcom had revealed his plan to start a new file sharing service which is the follow-up to Megaupload will be launched in January next year.
The new service claimed to give users direct control and responsibility over their files and designed to avoid the US laws under which he faces prosecution for alleged copyright violations.
Megaupload was shut down by US officials in January this year, following allegations of piracy.
He is currently residing in New Zealand and fighting a legal battle to prevent extradition to US.
Kim Dotcom said that he is a victim of witch hunt carried by US but is not concerned at Gabon government’s plan to suspend the domain.
"Don’t worry. We have an alternative domain. This just demonstrates the bad faith witch hunt the US government is on," Dotcom said.
