I have to wonder what the bar for this sort of severe action is considering that so many companies seem to be taking these steps. If it is "country invades another country" or "human rights abuse happening perpetrated by $COUNTRY" then I think there's a long list of regimes that need to be added to the will not serve list.
I for one welcome this kind of development and hope to see more of it. Corporations shouldn't just be held to the standard of how much profit can they make. It's crazy to me that there's a whole separate "B corp" designation when in my mind we should have a by-default expectation that organizations consider their impact on social & environmental issues.
Namecheap: Russia Service Termination
331–340 of 1001 posts
Re: Namecheap: Russia Service Termination
#332We haven't blocked the domains, we are asking people to move. There are plenty of other choices out there when it comes to infrastructure services so this isn't "deplatforming". I sympathize with people that are not pro regime but ultimately even those tax dollars they may generate go to the regime. We have people on the ground in Ukraine being bombarded now non stop. I cannot with good conscience continue to support…
All that to say I am cancelling my Namecheap account and in the future will actively recommend alternatives to your services. Not only is what you're doing completely ineffective, it is likely doing more harm than good to decent people.
Re: Namecheap: Russia Service Termination
#333(I am by no means a networking expert. My understanding is that while people can run DNS servers of their own, they still must ultimately register their domain name somewhere.)
First, I worry this will increase Russian users' exposure to monitoring and censorship by the regime. After all, if all foreign DNS services do this, Russian customers will have no alternative but Russian DNS services, which will be far more vulnerable to control and/or infiltration by the government. Won't the government be able to tap local DNS providers to see which IP addresses are looking up dissident sites? Won't it be able to track who is looking up email address domains? Perhaps who is sending what emails to who?
Helping people obtain DNS service _outside_ Russian jurisdiction seems more damaging to the Putin regime.
Second, communication is of particular importance in its nature, even when some of the parties are abhorrent. Communication enables and fosters debate and learning. It provides access to alternative sources of information, of particular importance in a propaganda state like Russia. DNS is basically a phone book that enables contact among parties, right? If all DNS providers take the view of Namecheap these Russian parties are thrown out of the phone book. There is no communication with them, no exchange of ideas or information, no possibility of reasoning with them or changing their mind.
It is in the nature of communication that sometimes the people you are communicating with are fascist militaristic assholes. Even if we could reliably determine who those assholes are (I grant, right now it's pretty clear), cutting them out of the conversation entirely doesn't seem good for anyone. The assholes can't learn what they're doing wrong if they aren't talking to anyone else. And sometimes (again, unlikely to be this time) it turns out that _we_ are the asshole.
Third, it isn't clear how bright these lines really are. I grant, right now it's quite clear that Russia is a bad actor. But what about about China, with its treatment of the Uighurs and Hong Kong? Or the US with its invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan? (Which, btw, I supported.). Or Israel, Iran, Pakistan, India -- about any one of which someone could (and does) plausibly argue is engaged in crimes against humanity. Once we start kicking people out of the "you can talk" club, we'll be endlessly arguing which people to kick out. Better not to start.
It won't do to say, "they can get domain name service from someone else". If _all_ providers take this position, these players are out of the conversation. And if this is the right position, all providers _should_ take this position.
I deplore what Russia is doing in Ukraine and hope its invasion fails. I hope the Putin regime collapses to be replaced by a truly democratic one. And I'm all for economic sanctions generally -- stop buying Russian energy, stop banking transactions, stop buying their goods. By all means, stop helping Russia finance its invasion.
But communication is a special case. I think this kind of exclusion is contrary to human communication, and potentially bad for Russian dissidents. I hope Namecheap will reconsider.
Re: Namecheap: Russia Service Termination
#334We haven't blocked the domains, we are asking people to move. There are plenty of other choices out there when it comes to infrastructure services so this isn't "deplatforming". I sympathize with people that are not pro regime but ultimately even those tax dollars they may generate go to the regime. We have people on the ground in Ukraine being bombarded now non stop. I cannot with good conscience continue to support…
Re: Namecheap: Russia Service Termination
#335We haven't blocked the domains, we are asking people to move. There are plenty of other choices out there when it comes to infrastructure services so this isn't "deplatforming". I sympathize with people that are not pro regime but ultimately even those tax dollars they may generate go to the regime. We have people on the ground in Ukraine being bombarded now non stop. I cannot with good conscience continue to support…
Re: Namecheap: Russia Service Termination
#336Re: Namecheap: Russia Service Termination
#337I will respond to this one. It's good that you tried to fight the regime. Clearly it wasn't enough. You live in society, not in the woods. The majority decides how all live - like in any other country. In your country majority decided not to overthrow dictatorship. As result, minority suffers. So here is your answer.
Most of people here has no any experience of fighting against even a soft authoritarian regime. You just don't have a clue how it looks like where the police officers beat you in the chamber in the night and you are screaming and nobody help you, they torture you putting a bottle in your anus and smashing your teeth. It's completely immoral to blame people they are fighting not enough, you don't know NOTHING about it…
Re: Namecheap: Russia Service Termination
#338We haven't blocked the domains, we are asking people to move. There are plenty of other choices out there when it comes to infrastructure services so this isn't "deplatforming". I sympathize with people that are not pro regime but ultimately even those tax dollars they may generate go to the regime. We have people on the ground in Ukraine being bombarded now non stop. I cannot with good conscience continue to support…
Re: Namecheap: Russia Service Termination
#339Re: Namecheap: Russia Service Termination
#340We haven't blocked the domains, we are asking people to move. There are plenty of other choices out there when it comes to infrastructure services so this isn't "deplatforming". I sympathize with people that are not pro regime but ultimately even those tax dollars they may generate go to the regime. We have people on the ground in Ukraine being bombarded now non stop. I cannot with good conscience continue to support…