Using URL typos for political gain

Surfing to the German journal Internationale Politik, I found an (outdated) Kurdish independence website. Registering domain names that closely resemble another is an old trick, usually used by savvy marketers for competiting or less ethical redirects. I remember that when AT&T held a promotion in the United States for long distance based on calling 1-800-OPERATOR, a competitor registered 1-800-OPERATER. All those that didn’t know how to spell were directed not to AT&T but to someone else, MCI was it? Sprint?

Returning to Internationale Politik, the proper URL is http://www.internationalepolitik.de/. However, if you insert a hypen between Internationale and Politik, you get the Kurdish site. Clever and old.