Former NY Mayor Bloomberg cancels purchase of insulting web domains
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg called off the purchase of a slew of website domain names that insult and belittle him and his work, a spokeswoman said on Tuesday.
The move came a day after reports that two law firms working for Bloomberg had purchased about 400 such online domains.
The domains included bloombergfail.nyc, mikethespoiler.nyc and kingmike.nyc, according to an online registry. Others were more insulting, such as mikeistoorich.nyc and michaelbloombergistooshort.nyc.
The purchase of negative website domains is a common strategy among politicians and other public figures in an effort to protect their reputations.
Bloomberg spokeswoman Meghan Womack said his lawyers had been "overly-aggressive" in trying to protect Bloomberg.
"We have requested the immediate release of any domains that are not straightforward," she said.
The release meant the domains would be publicly available, she said.
(Reporting by Sebastien Malo; Editing by Ellen Wulfhorst and Jim Loney)
