The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) Board has announced that it’s rejecting the proposed deal with Ethos Capital, a private equity firm, to acquire Public Interest Registry (PIR), the company that owns the .ORG domain.

The potential sale has been under scrutiny for months as concerns were raised, especially among the nonprofit sector, about the possibility of domain price increases and the threat of censorship. The sale posed a potential financial burden to small nonprofits along with the risk of our sector losing control of its .ORG brand value.

In a statement