On Monday, Namecheap, a company that provides domain registration services, emailed Russian citizens to inform them that it would no longer provide them with services because of the Russian government’s invasion of Ukraine.
“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,” the company says in the emails sent yesterday.
“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.”
Aside from domain names, the US-based tech firm, that has a large Eastern European staff, also provides web hosting, DNS, and other internet infrastructure services.
The company told Russian users that their web pages would redirect to an error message and that all top-level domains should be transferred to other providers by March 6.
“If you hold any top-level domains with us, we ask that you transfer them to another provider by March 6, 2022,” Namecheap said.
“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 (рф), .by, .xn--90ais (бел), and .su.
“All websites will resolve to 403 Forbidden, however, you can contact us to assist you with your transfer to another provider.”
CEO Richard Kirkendall insisted on the HackerNews forum that what he was doing isn’t “deplatforming” because there are other options.
“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’,” Kirkendall explained, when faced with pushback on the decision.
“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.”
The CEO continued: “Ukrainian citizens are doing just fine at kicking your governments ass at this time, sacrificing their lives while at it. Time to do more and rise up. If they can do it, you can. Take control against your own corrupt and bloodthirsty government, at least you won’t be under threat of nuclear attack and constant carpet bombing like the Ukrainians while you’re doing it.”
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