[HN Gopher] Namecheap: Russia Service Termination
___________________________________________________________________
Namecheap: Russia Service Termination
Just received this email: Dear XXXX, Unfortunately, due to the
Russian regime's war crimes and human rights violations in Ukraine,
we will no longer be providing services to users registered in
Russia. While we sympathize that this war may not affect your own
views or opinion on the matter, the fact is, your authoritarian
government is committing human rights abuses and engaging in war
crimes so this is a policy decision we have made and will stand by.
If you hold any top-level domains with us, we ask that you transfer
them to another provider by March 6, 2022. Additionally, and with
immediate effect, you will no longer be able to use Namecheap
Hosting, EasyWP, and Private Email with a domain provided by
another registrar in zones .ru, .xn--p1ai (rf), .by, .xn--90ais
(bel), and .su. All websites will resolve to 403 Forbidden,
however, you can contact us to assist you with your transfer to
another provider. Customer Support, Namecheap
Author : exizt88
Score : 131 points
Date : 2022-02-28 20:38 UTC (2 hours ago)
| bitxbitxbitcoin wrote:
| Interesting... Russian users of their Handshake tlds, too is what
| I am reading.
|
| Prime example of the risk associated with using a centralized
| entity.
|
| At the same time, a bold and clear move.
| NamecheapCEO wrote:
| We 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 the
| Russian regime in any way, shape or form. People that are getting
| angry need to point that at the cause, their own government. If
| more grace time is necessary for some to move, we will provide
| it. Free speech is one thing but this decision is more about a
| government that is committing war crimes against innocent people
| that we want nothing to do with.
| atlantas wrote:
| Should Chinese residents be concerned?
| Ekaros wrote:
| Or Israeli?
| humanistbot wrote:
| Or USA? I'm remembering something about a fake vial of
| anthrax being held up at the UN by the US government to
| justify the illegal Iraq War.
| NamecheapCEO wrote:
| We've never focused any of our business in China with
| intention. I didn't want our company to acquise and sell it's
| soul to do business there so we purposely avoided it all
| these years. We may have some customers there but not very
| many that I am aware of.
| hunterb123 wrote:
| Did you focus your business in Russia with intention?
|
| If so, it seems strange to give them focus, then take the
| service away because of what their government that they
| have no control over has done.
|
| If not, then why the inconsistent policies with Russian
| citizens vs Chinese citizens?
|
| Either way, I don't support involving citizens if it can be
| avoided. Oligarchs I could understand, similar to the state
| sanctions, but everyday citizens doesn't make sense.
|
| I do use you guys, but I'll be moving as I don't want my
| domain provider in any political events or targeting
| citizens. It's a shame because your bitcoin support was
| nice.
|
| Russian developers are already having bank account issues,
| now you spring this on them. It's really not helping the
| situation. Don't you want to empower their tech community
| to keep us connected? I doubt any of the bad actors are
| using namecheap and you should be removing those anyway.
| ainar-g wrote:
| > We haven't blocked the domains, we are asking people to move.
|
| Putin has announced recently that cross-border payments in USD
| and EUR are to be blocked. Which means that most Russians
| affected by this won't be able to pay for a registrar outside
| of Russia.
|
| People here have mentioned transferring their domain names to
| NIC.RU, the state-owned registrar. Which means that Putin
| actually receives _more_ money because of this.
|
| Speaking of taxes. What about people who used the domains for
| personal use? Or for non-profit orgs?
| grey-area wrote:
| Wouldn't that mean those people couldn't pay namecheap
| anyway?
| rmnc wrote:
| > Putin has announced recently that cross-border payments in
| USD and EUR are to be blocked. Which means that most Russians
| affected by this won't be able to pay for a registrar outside
| of Russia.
|
| THIS
|
| I've paid upfront exactly because of this, I was expecting
| some kind of ban of cross-border bank transfers. The same
| reason I've paid for my VPN upfront. No one in Russia,
| especially those who are politically active, can't really go
| around without some kind of self-hosted infrastructure.
|
| Now, should Namecheap lag even a little bit with a transfer,
| which I've HAD to pay for (thankfully, I was able to use
| other provider rather than nic.ru), I will be left without my
| private XMPP service, self-hosted e-mail and a lot of stuff
| which makes my communications at least relatively safe.
|
| While making such moves, they just made my life more
| dangerous, at time when government already looks for someone
| on the inside to blame.
| orphea wrote:
| > thankfully, I was able to use other provider rather than
| nic.ru
|
| May I ask you which one you transferred your domains to?
| rmnc wrote:
| I would prefer not to disclose this due to concerns to my
| personal safety. Thank you for understanding.
| codegeek wrote:
| I am an American and lucky not to have anything in Russia but
| as a namecheap customer, I urge you to please be patient with
| people and give them time to move. I understand the decision
| you made and it is your right to do so but please do not block
| someone just because they couldn't do it by a certain date. I
| am sure you know but empathy is really needed right now. Your
| March 6 deadline worries me.
| NamecheapCEO wrote:
| We'll definitely consider extending the deadline if it is
| causing problems.
| dc2k08 wrote:
| fmcoder wrote:
| I'm moving our of Russia with my family. I was glad that my
| business was already outside of it. Now this domain stuff just
| added up to a pile of problems I must solve.
|
| And the effect is negative - I moved domains out of NameCheap
| to Russia simply because any other US or EU based registrar can
| do the same crazy thing and are not trusted.
|
| So Putin's regime actually got more money out of this.
| polack wrote:
| Please don't play the pitty card in this situation. There is
| a bigger picture here. You have to move your domain(s) while
| Ukrainians are getting blown to pieces by your government,
| regardless of what you think of it.
| exizt88 wrote:
| No value was created out of them moving these domains. It's
| not like Namecheap is doing any good here. They're just
| posturing without actually helping anyone with this move or
| affecting real change.
| polack wrote:
| Do you really think all these sanctions against Russia
| won't have any effect? The more countries and companies
| that join in, the faster the results will come. The
| Russian masses cannot put a blind eye to what their
| government are doing any more.
|
| I find it really distasteful that a couple of you cannot
| even be bothered to transfer some domains. You know what
| your taxes are funding right now don't you???
| fmcoder wrote:
| I don't. I just don't see a logic in this. Our government
| and Russian people are different realities. We just happen
| to reside on the same territory. It's easy to say sitting
| on your couch "why don't you protest" or "why didn't you
| flee the country" when it's not you who has to do it.
| jventura wrote:
| Either you care or not, your government represents the
| russian people for all the world. I know that individual
| people should not be blamed, and I'm really sorry that
| you guys are in the middle of this shit, but the rest of
| the world has no other effective way of showing to the
| russian government our disagreement with what they're
| doing.
| polack wrote:
| You fund the attacks on Ukraine whether you want it or
| not. Nobody is targetting you specifically, but
| transfering a couple of domains as collateral damage
| isn't that much problems is it? And while you think of a
| response to that, keep in mind that your tax money is
| funding attacks on innocent civilians, as in bombing
| them.
| NamecheapCEO wrote:
| Sure but I don't want our company to be a factor in that
| contribution. I'm sure there are plenty of others out there
| willing to take the money and provide these services. If
| there are anti-government non profits out there, We'll
| consider keeping those up with us if you'd still want
| anything to do with us.
|
| If you are no longer based in Russia and not doing business
| there, we'll consider that as well.
| yooga wrote:
| imwillofficial wrote:
| Matheus28 wrote:
| FYI "ensure" is misspelled as "insure" on the banner that shows
| on every page.
| nic9999 wrote:
| Who will return our money?
| NamecheapCEO wrote:
| You'll get refunded on any time you have left on that
| service. (hosting, email)
| fmajid wrote:
| You may no longer be able to refund the money because of
| the sanctions.
| asats wrote:
| Could you clarify what exactly is a "user registered in Russia"
| that you are banning? I left the country (because of the
| government), and now have american billing info in my account,
| but I still got the termination email.
| NamecheapCEO wrote:
| You'll be fine, please contact us and we'll get you
| whitelisted. Point here if any confusion with our support
| team.
| yooga wrote:
| There are multiple sanctions, affecting government-related
| personalities and state companies. Why did you decide to
| make a ban for the total nation despite on their location,
| occupation and not same black list of government-related
| targets?
| NamecheapCEO wrote:
| Tax dollars fund that very government whether directly or
| indirectly. If you have a property this is anti regime or
| to that effect. We will consider white listng you.
| xanaxagoras wrote:
| > People that are getting angry need to point that at the
| cause, their own government.
|
| I'm in this thread getting angry and I live in California. Are
| you prepared to be consistent by looking into my government's
| "war crimes and human rights violations"?
| hereforphone wrote:
| Would you give me a list of "wrong" things I shouldn't do in
| order to not have my service potentially terminated in the
| future?
| sandstrom wrote:
| Are you sure this will help your objective?
|
| Putin is a maniac and his war is horrible.
|
| But as you've probably seen from all the 'prisoners of war'
| videos out of Ukraine, most soldiers don't want to fight this
| war.
|
| Russians that are savvy enough to setup their own domain, will
| also be the ones that use a VPN to read foreign news. Very few
| in the Russian "tech scene" like Putin.
|
| Shutting down their means of communication may make it harder
| for them to stage demonstrations, etc.
|
| Instead, you should "magically" add emails to their inboxes,
| with e.g. Zelenskyy's speech to the Russian people, or add
| banners when they login to control panels etc.
| contingencies wrote:
| Dear Namecheap CEO,
|
| A better way you could have done this would be to announce non-
| renewal but have a single-renewal escape clause for people who
| are too busy to deal with it. This would allow you to make your
| point without shafting the consumer. You could also have given
| something back like a one-time at-cost discount on moving to
| new replacement domains. You know, act in solidarity _with_
| your customer instead of against them.
|
| PS. It's not too late to fix this. Be part of the internet we
| love, the internet that crosses borders and joins people.
|
| _Nationalism is an infantile disease. It is the measles of
| mankind._ - Einstein
| toast0 wrote:
| I agree that this move seems too abrupt. Fulfilling current
| paid services and setting a reasonable deadline for final
| renewal (if payment is still available, which may be out of
| your control) and a reasonable maximum term length for any
| renewals would provide a lot more business continuity.
|
| Maybe you're not worried about business continuity of the
| newly sanctioned customers, but other customers who aren't
| currently sanctioned but may be subject to future sanctions
| because they don't control the regime they live in would
| appreciate a more reasonable continuity process.
|
| Of course, if these sanctions are as a result of legal
| requirements, gotta follow the law. But, so far, there
| doesn't seem to be a blanket ban on business with people in
| Russia; other than banking restrictions make it hard to
| transact.
| rmnc wrote:
| I've paid in full for four domains just four days ago -- some
| two hours before I was thrown into a police bus. I may
| understand why you did this, but this is a low move,
| nonetheless.
|
| Tax dollars or not, you're imposing extra costs on your users,
| most of which relied on your services for decades, and
| terminating any trust they ever had in your services.
| catwarrior wrote:
| Bluesboy wrote:
| exizt88 wrote:
| > People that are getting angry need to point that at the
| cause, their own government.
|
| Believe me, I'm very angry at my government. Unlike you, I've
| been protesting the regime for several years, putting my health
| and well-being at risk. I've donated thousands of dollars to
| anti-regime organizations. And I'm currently in the process of
| fleeing the country because of this.
|
| So I'm also very angry at you, for screwing me over when I'm in
| a really fucking vulnerable position, as well as hundreds other
| developers who depended on your company.
| waffle_maniac wrote:
| I really hope the CEO, Richard Kirkendall, responds to your
| comment. It would be cowardly not to do so.
|
| Edit: It seems like he has responded to other comments but
| not this one.
| NicoJuicy wrote:
| I don't think they ( namecheap) has a choice, considering a
| lot of their employees live/lived in Ukraine.
| rootusrootus wrote:
| > a lot of their employees live/lived in Ukraine
|
| I get this impression this is a lot of why they made this
| business decision. They're standing strongly by their
| employees.
| NicoJuicy wrote:
| For sake of perspective.
|
| Let's say Belgium was invaded and I had to to handle a
| support ticket from the same nationality as the agressor.
|
| I'm not sure if I would have the clarity to handle it
| with the "expected" care, if I just had to flee my home.
| While standing with your employees is one thing, I'm not
| sure if the same support quality can be achieved.
|
| The whole continent received threats because of nukes by
| now.
| ashvardanian wrote:
| Exactly! The tech community is the epicenter of change in
| Russia, same as in most places.
|
| My situation is different, but equally anecdotal. I left
| Russia years ago, as soon as I could. My company isn't in
| Russia. I don't pay taxes in Russia. I am not even Russian by
| ethnicity, but I have relatives in Russia and I am still
| holding a Russian passport. Does that make me a bad person?
| Even if I were Russian, is it against the ICANN rules to
| belong to certain ethnicities or nationalities?
|
| As a final note, people who live in CIS all have friends in
| both countries. For them the war is real and not on a TV
| screen. Imagine how many hours will those people waste
| changing those damn configs instead of helping people in need
| in both Ukraine and Russia...
| sauwan wrote:
| Welcome to having your country at war. What's a company
| supposed to do when a huge portion of their workforce have
| the not very proverbial gun to their heads? Continue to
| support users in the country that's holding the gun?
|
| I'm sorry this is happening to you and know that it's outside
| your control. Namecheap certainly doesn't have much control
| over the situation either, but I certainly can't fault them
| for siding with their employees and a large majority of their
| customer base (myself included) that finds this war both
| abhorrent and terrifying (nuclear war is a non-zero risk that
| seems to increase every day this war goes on).
| dang wrote:
| > _Welcome to having your country at war_
|
| Please keep snark off HN at the best of times (this is in
| the site guidelines:
| https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html) and
| certainly in a case like this. Piling on an individual is
| definitely not a good way to respond.
|
| I appreciate what you said later in your comment but
| unfortunately flamebait is determined by the flamiest bit,
| and you led with that.
| rosndo wrote:
| This is petty, the comment is factually accurate and not
| written in an inflammatory manner.
|
| These are the consequences of the decisions made by
| exizt88's government, it is not unfair to point this out.
| Nobody is blaming him.
| awkdoiji123 wrote:
| I can't transfer domains to another domain registrar because I
| have to pay "Transfer Fee". I can't do this because the payment
| through my Russian cards does not go through. Now I need to go
| to the Russian domain registrar and pay them to transfer
| domains from NameCheap.
| Ekaros wrote:
| I hope you take this same stance against USA and their drone
| strikes of civilians. I don't see how any good company can
| anyway work with those people either.
| yesbut wrote:
| also, we've preemptively invaded two countries (UN war crimes
| also) and our oligarchs get to keep their mansions and yachts
| and none of them will ever see the inside of a prison cell.
| we should absolutely condemn Putin, but I wish we'd also lock
| up our own war criminals.
| hurflmurfl wrote:
| Great, now amid looking for ways to get my family out I also have
| to find another registrar who will not do the same thing and
| transfer my domains so that my cloud and email are still working.
|
| Any politically neutral registrars that HN crowd can recommend?
| atlantas wrote:
| It's time to decentralize.
|
| https://ens.domains https://ipfs.io/
| contingencies wrote:
| Gandi are _no bullshit_. Ask them.
| linuxhiker wrote:
| alinaish wrote:
| Yeah just like people in North Korea stopped putting up with
| the regime. Do you think it's their own fault as well?
|
| Have you ever tried to fight against the regime at the cost
| of spending years in prison or to be killed?
| catwarrior wrote:
| pwned1 wrote:
| Well, at least my .su domain still works...
| allisdust wrote:
| This is quite unprofessional of them. Unless the jurisdiction
| specifically forbids it, taking sides like this and kicking out
| their paying customers with little notice is nothing but
| opportune posturing that reeks of deplatforming. Don't take out
| your grievances on already subjugated population.
| tharne wrote:
| This isn't a business or political issue for them. See the
| response from the CEO in this discussion. They have employees
| on the ground in Ukraine who's lives are in danger right now.
| Given that, I understand why they are not that concerned about
| the fairness of it.
| atkailash wrote:
| crate_barre wrote:
| xfitm3 wrote:
| This is the real consequences of cancel culture. It's
| convenient until it comes up against your own personal beliefs.
| NamecheapCEO wrote:
| Cancel culture doesn't usually involve government war crimes.
| I am anti woke myself but pro genocide I am not.
| yrgulation wrote:
| While i sympathise with those in russia affected by this, the
| suffering will be no where near that of ukranians up in arms
| defending their country. A brave move from Namecheap, you've won
| a customer!
| cft wrote:
| It's the same registrar that threatened to turn off our 3000
| Alexa rank site due to a defective copyright notice on one of the
| 30 million user subdomains! Our legal counsel had to write to
| them a threatening letter to buy time, and then we fled
| immediately.
| get52 wrote:
| fmcoder wrote:
| Isn't it a discrimination based on nationality? We're a small
| company in Russia and things are already hard for us. And now
| this. We do not support Putin or his war, why hit on us?
| Symbiote wrote:
| They are targeting users in Russia, not Russians.
|
| Ultimately, people in Russia are paying taxes towards this war,
| and have some responsibility for their government.
| medv wrote:
| I am from Switzerland. Got an email too:
| https://twitter.com/antonmedv/status/1498407020864675843
|
| Because I'm Russian, I guess?
| NamecheapCEO wrote:
| Shouldn't be the case, please reach out to our support and
| we'll rectify it.
| asats wrote:
| I'm in the US, also got the email.
| NamecheapCEO wrote:
| Reach out, we'll get this fixed
| insineer wrote:
| anonAndOn wrote:
| This is what the beginning of economic stagnation looks like
| and how regime change is forced upon Russia (again). It could
| be worse, though. You could have a nuclear power rolling tanks
| through your neighborhood trying to decapitate your government
| and install a puppet.
| viro wrote:
| bjourne wrote:
| viro wrote:
| nic9999 wrote:
| [deleted]
| pictur wrote:
| This is the site with the most horrible user experience I've ever
| seen. A site so stupid that it says we can't verify your identity
| even though I sent a recovery email with the mail I registered
| with. There really is no logical explanation for why they could
| be this big with godaddy. I hope it ends soon. Please do not use
| this site. If you are using it, stop using it.
| xanaxagoras wrote:
| I'm not in Russia and I don't really care about this war (sorry,
| just being honest!) but this isn't the kind of internet I want,
| where companies show their virtue by taking political positions
| and removing service from their customers (looking at you AWS).
| The domain and e-mail service that I paid money for shouldn't be
| contingent on my government behaving and continuing to behave in
| a manor that Namecheap approves of.
|
| > If you hold any top-level domains with us, we ask that you
| transfer them to another provider by March 6, 2022.
|
| I'll be transferring them this evening, GFY.
| MysticKnight wrote:
| I also got this email. How will this affect me?
|
| I dont have any Russian domains/tlds, nor am I in Russia and
| never have been. I'm in England, born here and have lived here my
| whole life?
|
| The only domains I have are ".xyz" , ".cam", ".pw" tlds. My
| hosting is from Hetzner in Germany.
|
| I have zero links to Russia.
|
| The email says in bold "If you hold any top-level domains with
| us, we ask that you transfer them to another provider by March 6,
| 2022."
|
| Which makes it seem to me like you are saying it will affect me
| somehow?
| NicoJuicy wrote:
| Response of namecheap CEO to a similar issue:
|
| > You'll be fine, please contact us and we'll get you
| whitelisted. Point here if any confusion with our support team.
| MysticKnight wrote:
| I sent off a support ticket, hopefully they sort it out, I
| was already in the process of moving a domain out anyway and
| was considering moving the others as they are nearing
| expiry/renewal anyway in a couple months.
|
| I usually use Google Domains, they've been pretty solid for
| the last few years, the only reason I used Namecheap to begin
| with was because they were so cheap but now its almost the
| same price as most places to renew and theres little
| incentive to stay.
| fuoqi wrote:
| This virtue signaling is just plain stupid, same as the vodka
| boycott (FYI less than 2% of vodka in US is imported from
| Russia).
| powerslacker wrote:
| Are there any official sources for this? I did a quick google
| search and couldn't find any announcements.
| medv wrote:
| I also got an email:
| https://twitter.com/antonmedv/status/1498407020864675843
| unamedrus wrote:
| I just received the same email.
|
| Good for them, moving to nic.ru
| fmcoder wrote:
| Namecheap sent this email to Russian customers.
| MysticKnight wrote:
| That seems logical however I also got the email and I'm
| British, with zero links to Russia, no russian tlds/hosting,
| absolutely nothing, all my domains registered in England.
| NamecheapCEO wrote:
| Strange, should not have gone to you. Sorry about that.
| [deleted]
| [deleted]
| [deleted]
| hereforphone wrote:
| If they're willing to terminate service for political reasons in
| this case, who's to say they won't do it in the future for other
| political reasons? Here begins the slippery slope of Namecheap
| terminating service to those it deems "wrong".
|
| Been a happy, confident Namecheap user for a long time. Now I'm
| not so confident.
| exizt88 wrote:
| This is a really, really fucked up thing to do. Many Russians are
| currently scrambling to move their families and businesses
| abroad, away from Putin's regime (myself included). This will put
| additional pressure on people who are in a very difficult
| situation already and actively oppose the war.
|
| I sincerely hope Namecheap reconsiders.
| kolbusa wrote:
| They have offices in Ukraine. I got this e-mail as well. This
| is collateral damage. You can get an another domain. Many
| people won't get their life back. Fuck Putin, fuck the war.
| exizt88 wrote:
| The only people who will suffer from this are the people who
| are currently in a difficult situation due to them fleeing
| from Russia. Big companies and people staying in Russia will
| easily absorb this, of course.
| polack wrote:
| I don't see the hundred of thosands of people fleeing
| Russia at the moment. I do see them trying to get out of
| Ukraine though. Please stop trying to make yourself a
| victim. You're really not. You're just a troll.
| anonAndOn wrote:
| >Big companies and people staying in Russia will easily
| absorb this
|
| While it seems hard to fathom how big this anti-Putin
| tsunami really is but can you name any big companies based
| in North Korea? Like North Korea, Russia has just become
| reliant upon China for pretty much everything.
| get52 wrote:
| catwarrior wrote:
| rmnc wrote:
| This is really wrong. I'm a Russian national, and I'm not
| supporting aggression towards Ukraine. In contrast, I've spent
| last two days in police after being detained due to the fact that
| I dared to express my condemnation in public protest.
|
| I am not my government, and apart from starting a one-man
| revolution with a pretty obvious result, I'm doing everything I
| can to raise awareness, condemn actions of Russian government,
| and put an end to this. I've been doing so since 2011, back when
| I was a college student.
|
| Namecheap -- this is a low move. While I do understand that your
| company has a lot of Ukrainian employees, all of which are in
| grave danger, you're not doing anyone a favor by making a shitty
| life of most Russian nationals even shittier.
| raxi wrote:
| > your company has a lot of Ukrainian employees
|
| That raises a question: how to find a domain registar without a
| lot of Ukrainian employees ?
|
| According to the recent leak, Epik has them a lot as well.
|
| Could we crowdsource such a list of registrars sorted by
| nationality of their employees to be prepared to the geo risks?
| rmnc wrote:
| It is really hard to me to answer this. I was able to find a
| private Russian-based registar, which at least on the surface
| has no ties to the government or government-controlled
| entities and works with ICANN directly.
|
| Other people are trying to move to Cloudflare -- but my
| banking cards are already not working, and I can't pay in USD
| for their services. Plus to that, even if somebody manages to
| move to Cloudflare or GoDaddy, there's no guarantee that they
| won't pull the plug as well.
| gruez wrote:
| >Could we crowdsource such a list of registrars sorted by
| nationality of their employees to be prepared to the geo
| risks?
|
| People here are suggesting nic.ru, which I presume would have
| a pretty low risk of getting kicked off.
| raxi wrote:
| One of my websites is blocked by Roskomnadzor, so I'd
| prefer an offshore registrar :(
| sodality2 wrote:
| Consider njal.la.
| wruxes wrote:
| exizt88 wrote:
| Have you ever lived under a dictatorship? You do realise we
| can't just vote him out? He has guns pointed at us as well.
| blamarvt wrote:
| The people holding the guns are still just people though
| right? I think the point of these economic pressures is to
| eventually have those people with the guns turn around and
| point them on Putin.
| catwarrior wrote:
| tharne wrote:
| That's a much bigger ask than you seem to realize.
| Overthrowing a dictator is an incredibly bloody
| undertaking. Even if you win, there's no guarantee that
| whoever takes control of the country will be any better.
| blamarvt wrote:
| I am well aware of how big the ask is and it will be
| bloody either way. Acquiescing to a manipulative tyrant
| is the more painful option in the long run not only for
| Russians but also the world.
| jventura wrote:
| > Overthrowing a dictator is an incredibly bloody
| undertaking.
|
| Doesn't have to be. We did it in Portugal some 50 years
| ago [1]! I think just four people died.. We have been
| living in democracy since then, joined the European
| Union, etc.. So, it is possible..
|
| [1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carnation_Revolution
| rmnc wrote:
| Portugal is only 10.000 square kilometres bigger than one
| of the Russian's "oblast" (region) I grew up in, and has
| twice less people living in it than Moscow city
| residents.
|
| This is why only four people have died. Death toll in
| Russia in case of a mass revolution would be tens of
| thousands, if not hundreds of thousands.
| wruxes wrote:
| [deleted]
| Russian wrote:
| I believe we should start a group lawsuit against Namecheap in US
| courts. The damage they will make will be much, MUCH greater than
| a domain name renewal cost. We didn't violate a single point of
| the agreement and nobody of us is in US SDN list. This specific
| company think it can fuck a contract just because they want and
| we should stop this. Internet is a territory of freedom where we
| do not sort people.
| NamecheapCEO wrote:
| We have every right to choose who we do or don't do business
| with. We are a private company and are protected as such. If
| you need more time to move away, reach out.
| Russian wrote:
| vmception wrote:
| Do it, its a good time as any to remind people that "using
| their platform" is a two way street
| Alir3z4 wrote:
| Received the same.
|
| Such a shitty move.
|
| Moving some left over from them to nic.ru
|
| Why not ban every single US and NATO country users for the
| slaughter of many countries including but not limited to Iraq,
| Afghanistan, Syria, Palestine, Yemen, Libya... because of the
| actions of their government?
|
| Fuck this mentality that makes the life of ordinary people harder
| and call it "sympathy".
| Mikanoshi wrote:
| But there is no one they know in those countries, so it's like
| they do not exist.
| Alir3z4 wrote:
| This is just a PR move from them, let's see how many of these
| companies will follow in coming days.
| raxi wrote:
| But such moves only shows the unreliability of businesses that
| preach net neutrality and similar things and in fact discriminate
| based on ethnicity.
|
| So they show that Putin is right, that democracy and liberalism
| are dead, that Ukrainians are nazi, and rally people around him
| even more.
| NamecheapCEO wrote:
| We've always had a policy that almost anything goes excluding
| human rights abuses and especially war crimes and supporting
| violence. Nothing changed here.
| woodruffw wrote:
| Net neutrality is a concept in American telecommunications law,
| not an international political or philosophical concept.
|
| It has nothing to do with Russia, and even less to do with
| services running _on_ the Internet: it _solely_ concerns itself
| with the relationship between ISPs and the traffic they carry.
| Namecheap is not an ISP.
| Mikanoshi wrote:
| It's like they don't have enough problems as it is, they also
| want to annoy clients and destroy their own business. Their
| choice. Even if they reconsider it's a good idea to move anyway,
| such behavior makes them extremely unreliable.
| Symbiote wrote:
| They have 1700 staff in Ukraine, by far the majority of their
| employees, so it's not surprising that they see things
| differently to others.
|
| https://www.namecheap.com/careers/ukraine/
| exizt88 wrote:
| I don't know how this is relevant. I am very much against this
| war, but there is very little I can do to stop it as a regular
| citizen. I'm currently doing everything I can to flee the
| country, as I don't think my family is not safe here. I don't
| understand how this is supposed to harm Putin's regime or any
| of his supporters.
| [deleted]
| rocketbait951 wrote:
| May be it is more for the sake of their team and not you.
| onlyafan wrote:
| Disrupting the everyday lives of Russian citizens is an
| effective way to incite change. Some will choose to flee the
| chaos, but some will choose to protest and fight the regime.
|
| Will there be good Russians unfairly hurt as collateral
| damage? Yes.
|
| But the Ukrainian civilians being gunned down in the streets
| and having their homes blown up are also being unfairly hurt.
| There is very little they can do to stop it, but they've been
| forced to drop everything and fight.
|
| Like it or not, you're on one side of a war. It's to be
| expected that your life will be inconvenienced - so have
| lives on the other side. You can flee - nothing wrong with
| that - or you can protest, but you can't hope that you won't
| be impacted.
| xanaxagoras wrote:
| It's an advertisement to their leftist customers in Western
| countries.
| fmcoder wrote:
| Yup, it's actually making things harder for us to move away
| from Russia. One more thing to deal with. And this
| NameCheap's decision didn't hurt Putin even a tiny bit.
| jstarfish wrote:
| > And this NameCheap's decision didn't hurt Putin even a
| tiny bit.
|
| IOC lists have been plagued with domains registered through
| Namecheap for years.
|
| Namecheap is doing this for ideological reasons but this
| single action should (in theory) disrupt a lot of existing
| malware connections to hostile infrastructure.
| vbezhenar wrote:
| While I'm not from Russia, I guess I have to move domains to the
| registrar in my country. It's just not safe to do any business
| abroad, when I can't go to the court in case of anything happens
| and all my property could be seized if someone wouldn't like
| actions of my government.
| hurflmurfl wrote:
| I think it's pretty ironic, considering that that's probably
| the one thing domain owners in Russia wouldn't want - the
| Russian government being able to seize the domain.
| vbezhenar wrote:
| Yep, Russian citizens seem to be between hammer and anvil.
| I'm personally not afraid of government seizing my domain as
| it's just personal mail and I'm nobody important. But for
| something more controversial like opposition website that
| might be hard indeed.
| effnamecheap wrote:
| Simply an American, and I'll be moving my dozen domains off of
| Namecheap.
|
| Attacking random Russians for something you don't like of their
| leader is as dumb as post-9/11 Sikh bashing or interning
| German/Italian/Japanese after Pearl Harbor and the war
| declaration.
|
| Way to make a shit situation worse.
| Bluesboy wrote:
| [deleted]
| literal_me wrote:
| Received the same email. I'm based in Lithuania and I have a
| Russian first name. No Russian addresses, IPs, billing info etc
| (because I have never been there!). How do you even select people
| to target with this? It's past midnight, I'm trying to figure out
| my options here. How exactly do the Euros I pay you from EU
| contribute to the Russian aggression?
| pcdoodle wrote:
| dmitrygr wrote:
| How is this supposed to help? Ok, i get the virtue signaling
| angle, but seriously. What do you expect? That people want
| domains so much that they'll drop everything, abandon their
| families, kids, jobs, and go rise up against a well-defended
| president who'll jail or kill them for protesting?
|
| This does NOTHING to help Ukraine, hurts INNOCENT Russians, and
| makes you look good in the eyes of only the least attentive....
|
| So...why?
| NamecheapCEO wrote:
| If we were virtue signaling we wouldn't willingly be giving up
| a not non significant part of our business. This hurts us
| financially but it's the right thing to do, at least for us.
|
| Your leader/country is already killing innocent
| civilians/ukranians. They are putting it all on the line with
| their lives. They didn't ask for this yet they are dying for
| it. Change needs to come and the only way it can is for the
| Russian population to put it on the line as well.
| Russian wrote:
| dmitrygr wrote:
| > Your leader/country is already killing innocent
| civilians/ukranians.
|
| MY leader? Nice assumption, buddy.
|
| Oh, if only the world were as simple as you pretend (or,
| worse: think) it is. Sanctions have never ever worked,
| historically. Just ask cubans. And "we lose money on this"
| hardly makes you right, just makes you look sillier yet.
|
| Where were you with cutting off service of countries starting
| pointless wars when America invaded Afghanistan and Iraq?
| catwarrior wrote:
| insineer wrote:
| asats wrote:
| Not living in Russia (moved because of the government oppression)
| apparently is not sufficient to not be hit by this ban, just
| having any russia-related information gets you kicked out looks
| like. Really great move by them.
| NamecheapCEO wrote:
| If you are no longer based there and are not contributing to
| the regime in any way via taxes/duties we can whitelist you.
| playspeed wrote:
| I'm not in Russia last 15 years, could you white list me,
| please? My Namecheap id is playspeed. I'm anti wars, and anti
| corruption, anti thug supporter. I wish no conflict had had
| started. Thanks. Wish you, guys, safety.
| tguvot wrote:
| Given that Russian vodka is blacklisted from stores in USA (and
| Finland!) and replaced with message "we stand with Ukraine", it's
| not really surprising.
|
| I read interview with somebody from Russia yesterday, russian
| tracks getting their tires punctured in EU and get stuck because
| credit cards don't work anymore. Ships refuse to offload goods in
| Russian ports and drop them of "wherever in Europe". Russian
| companies can't buy/rent containers to bring goods to Russia.
|
| It's a lot of collateral damage.
|
| On the other side my brothers in law family in Kharkiv sleeps in
| hallway for past few days while outside blow up cluster munition
| delivered by MLRS systems
| https://twitter.com/YWNReporter/status/1498271572292952064?s...
|
| Edit: just to add, I myself was born in Kyiv. Company where I
| work now has officies both in Ukraine (in one of hotter places)
| and in russia. I am equally trying to help my colleagues from
| both offices to GTFO. Collateral damage is unfortunate for
| private person but frankly not surprising. What is "surprising"
| it's that a big chunk of Russian population is surprised by it
| exizt88 wrote:
| I don't understand how "collateral damage" is relevant. Aren't
| people supposed to minimize collateral damage? Namecheap didn't
| HAVE to do this. The chose to do this in a very particular way,
| which hurt its customers, especially those opposing Putin's
| regime and currently fleeing the country.
| tguvot wrote:
| I don't want to start flame war, and I really feel bad for
| your situation for for situation of many other people who
| opposed Putin regime who got majorly f(&d today (my head was
| spinning last few days as I saw russian economy falling
| through the bottom while city where I born is shelled),
| but... actions (or not actions) of Russian population over
| past 20 years created today's situation (don't tell me that
| you don't know the common opinion in russia that Ukrainians
| not really nation and do not deserve their own state). You
| are unfortunately collateral damage of your own actions, not
| of those of EU. EU and rest of the world trying to do damage
| control.
|
| I really do sorry for your situation, I really hope that
| namecheap will work out with you. I do hope that EU and other
| countries will extend humanitarian visas to people that try
| to escape russia now before iron curtain will fall down. Yet,
| at this moment, it is what it is.
| Matheus28 wrote:
| The only way to make change is to inconvenience people.
| franga2000 wrote:
| This is what sanctions are. Blocking bank accounts also hurts
| the people trying to flee, but it's one of the standard
| sanctions. It seems that everyone is hoping that making the
| Russian people's lives more difficult will make them stop
| supporting Putin and he will end the attack because of that.
| Why a dictator would care at all whether citizens support him
| or not is unlear to me, so I can't imagine any of this is
| going to be particularly effective.
| NamecheapCEO wrote:
| I'd be open to making exceptions in cases that are anti-
| regime.
| exizt88 wrote:
| How can I apply to get an anti-regime exceptions for
| Russian customers of Namecheap? Can you describe which
| evidence of anti-regime activity I should provide?
| Bluesboy wrote:
| rmnc wrote:
| ithkuil wrote:
| I cannot shake the weird feeling that in the united
| states almost everything is left to the free market, even
| sanctions.
| rootusrootus wrote:
| > This is the essence of cancel culture, now on a
| national level.
|
| We need to lose that term. It's not cancel culture to
| decide who you do and don't want to associate with, or do
| business with. That's freedom. The people being rejected
| only think their own freedom matters. Unless they are a
| protected class, that simply isn't true.
| rmnc wrote:
| I spent the last ten years doing everything I legally can
| to change the situation. I'm continuing to do so, to the
| best of my ability, however I still can.
|
| And I wasn't born with a golden spoon up my rear -- I've
| spent decades studying to even break free from my village
| where I've lived all my childhood.
|
| If you're affiliating me with a Russian government just
| based on my nationality, this is no better than executing
| enemy's civil population based on theirs. You may
| continue to do so, but please, get off your high horse.
| sydd wrote:
| Sadly its either these actions or tanks. And if the west
| would send tanks to Ukraine it'd be WW3. Its the lesser
| evil now sadly.
| rmnc wrote:
| glowsoul wrote:
| I find what Russian government doing completely disgusting
| and savage. I'm totally against this war. Any war for that
| matter.
|
| I have many domains at Namecheap and I will not be able to
| afford transfer them out due to financial situation.
|
| Is there any way I can still keep domains at Namecheap?
| Which cases are anti-regime?
| JumpCrisscross wrote:
| > _Is there any way I can still keep domains at
| Namecheap?_
|
| Use a Russian registrar. Or leave Russia. This sucks. War
| sucks. But I don't see how anyone can continue doing
| business in Russia while maintaining a clean conscience.
| gruez wrote:
| That sounds very "you're either against us or with us".
| mattnewton wrote:
| Yes, this happens very quickly in war time.
| user-the-name wrote:
| No, it sounds like a superpower attacked a sovereign
| country for no other reason than conquest, and we all do
| what we can to fight back.
| Dracophoenix wrote:
| How do you reconcile your actions with your claims of
| protecting free speech and the First Amendment?
| (https://www.namecheap.com/blog/internet-freedom-the-state-
| of...)
|
| Where do you get off reneging contracts and fleecing people
| of their money based solely on longitude and latitude and
| TLD?
| JumpCrisscross wrote:
| > _Where do you get off reneging contracts and fleecing
| people of their money based solely on longitude and
| latitude and TLD?_
|
| They're terminating their contract, not reneging.
| mattnewton wrote:
| The first amendment makes speech protected by state
| action. The united states of America is bound by law to
| not suppress the political speech of its citizens. I
| don't think it is relevant to international boycotts, in
| letter or in spirit.
| traveller_aa wrote:
| xfitm3 wrote:
| Truly awful. If you listen to Russian news (propaganda) they're
| claiming Ukranians want Russia to come liberate them and save
| them from poor living conditions. It's almost as if they forgot
| that people have the internet.
| tguvot wrote:
| Internet doesn't help. I saw screenshots of bunch of chats
| between relatives in Ukraine and Russia in first couple of
| days. People from Russia claim that Ukrainians are
| brainwashed, russia comes to liberate them and only neo-nazis
| are fighting back and shooting into cities.
|
| There is also articles on official new sites (like RIA) that
| neo-nazis are executing Ukranian Military personal that
| doesn't want to fight.
|
| Internet doesn't help. It's all about bubble...
|
| As very unpleasant example, my father who lived most of his
| live in Kyiv but lives in Germany for past 15 years or so, is
| consuming only russian media. He is sure that Ukraine is
| ruled by neo-nazis from bunkers in Kyiv and whatever Russia
| is doing it's appropriate. This was his opinion after first
| day. Don't think that it changed
| brandonbloom wrote:
| > Internet doesn't help.
|
| Just ask anyone who has moved to Seattle, but has
| conservative family back in their home state. Folks believe
| we live in an anarchist hellscape. Myself and several
| friends have had the experience of being called liars by
| family members who trust Fox News over the word of their
| blood relatives. It's absolutely maddening.
| lijogdfljk wrote:
| I mean, Seattle is a hellscape to me lol. I mostly kid, i
| live south of Tacoma, i just hate the homeless problem in
| Olympia, Seattle. The roads in southern Seattle also make
| me want to die hah.
|
| Anyway, just making local-jokes mostly. Not actually
| attacking Seattle :)
| mrtri wrote:
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