I've been setting up infrastructure to do blockade running over the obviously coming great Russian firewall for the last few days and made a mistake of relying on your service. I did expect payment troubles. I did not expect you to help the Kremlin in isolating the Russian populace from uncensored news and communication platforms beyond its reach. Right now my grandparents are going to have greater problem finding news about the war from any other source beyond Putin-controlled bullshit faucets, and so will I. It's likely also the case for antiwar protesters.
Isolating Russian users from foreign internet services is literally the Kremlin's dream, something it could not achieve for a long time even with all the power amassed over the years. It's revolting to see Namecheap and others doing Putin's job for him, while claiming to stand up against his war crimes. And spare me the "tax dollar" spiel. The overwhelming revenue going towards the war comes from oil and gas exports (even more so with the currency crisis), something that is explicitly not being sanctioned - less the Western tech executives are inconvenienced.
If you're going to harm people because of their country of birth to feel better about yourself - say it straight. What you're doing right now will not help a single Ukrainian, and will make Putin more resilient, not less.
The Namecheap CEO said his company employs 1000 Ukrainians.
It's almost certainly the case that they face mass resignations and walkouts if they don't cut off Russia. I think I would trust the Ukrainian employees of Namecheap to know better than a random individual on the internet what is in the best interest of those employees and their community.
Is it still virtue signaling when your 1700 Ukrainian employees are currently getting bombed?
Seems like a bit of a stretch to claim such with so much of their workforce having their life and liveyhoods directly impacted by the Russian invasion.
If a cupcake shop in California stopped serving Russian customers I'd agree with you, but this situation feels just a tiny bit different wouldn't you say.
> Your country is murdering peaceful civilians in another country with barrages of artillery targetted at civilian dwellings, in a war that they started for no reason but to build an empire, and you're here on HN complaining about people protesting it. It seems like you really ought to be complaining about the war, instead of other peoples methods of protesting it.
It would seem to me that you and Namecheap are suggesting that ordinary Russian people are at fault here because they are not revolting against their government, or worse, just because they are Russian. I am not sure if that is the appropriate message to send right now.
I can't speak for Namecheap, but I'm happy to speak for myself. I don't think your characterization of my comment is entirely correct. I've broken down what my comment is and isn't intended to say in detail below:
My comment is intended to suggest that people coming on the internet complaining about protests against Russia's war bear some small degree of responsibility.
My comment is intended to suggest that whatever effort they are putting into those complaints, would be better be used if it was spent against the Russian government.
My comment is intended to suggest that people living inside Russia do bear some extra degree of responsibility for this, though it is by no means anywhere near equivalent to them doing it themselves. When people do things in your name, using soldiers supported by your work (taxes if nothing else), some small degree of responsibility comes with it - even in dictatorships.
My comment is intended to suggest that the degree of responsibility is somewhat higher for the relatively elite class that most people acquiring a domain name belong to.
My comment is not intended to suggest that being ethnically Russian, or being born in Russia and having left the country, comes with any degree of responsibility (past that of what everyone has). I can see how you could interpret it that way, but I don't think that's a reasonable or charitable interpretation.
My comment absolutely does not say that they are morally required to revolt despite the high personal cost, nor do I think that it could properly be interpreted to say that. Rather it takes the extremely limited perspective that it is morally wrong for them to spend time and effort complaining about actions intended to stop this travesty. And my comment observes that one way to reach that conclusion is to notice that the effort would be better spent working against the people causing this travesty, instead of the people trying to stop it.
I'm complaining that this effort constrains the anti-war movement in Russia - something that might actually stop the war - and does not do much to Putin or his enablers. No, a domain registar refusing service will not single-handedly isolate the entire country from independent media. But it is hobbling the people that try to keep their infra outside of Kremlin's reach - the exact kind of people that try to do things that Kremlin disapproves of. And, ridiculously, this can be done right - just ban commercial accounts.
The "technologically sophisticated people running services inside Russia" that are "living in privileged situations" are the ones with the means to provide ordinary people with alternative news sources and ways of communication - the exact things required for the popular anti-war sentiment to grow. This stupid measure is not making this impossible, but it is making it harder.
Thank you for this thoughtful and illuminating perspective. I'll make sure that my octogenarian life-long liberal grandparents hear about this. It's long past time for people above 75 to rise up and topple one of the most entrenched and well-defended authoritarian regimes on the planet. Maybe they can solve climate change while they're at it.
On a more serious note - this is about the opposition being denied foreign infrastructure. This translates into less effective protests, drives people into censored and controlled social media ponds, and makes disseminating thing like videos of war crimes this much harder.
I would understand if Namecheap were to block accounts related to Russian businesses. But this is virtue signalling at its worst - this decision makes situation worse, while making the people who made feel better.
I am serious: this is all the important bits regarding the news, anything else is superfluous. There is no sugarcoating this.
That your grandparents have no agency is not the fault of Ukrainians. I totally understand their mindset, having lived in Poland when the iron curtain was still in place. It sucks to be in your - and their - place, but it sucks even more to be sitting in Kyiv right now waiting for the bombs to fall.
> On a more serious note - this is about the opposition being denied foreign infrastructure. This translates into less effective protests, drives people into censored and controlled social media ponds, and makes disseminating thing like videos of war crimes this much harder.
Agreed, which is exactly why I argued upthread, long ago for Namecheap to block businesses but to leave private individuals' accounts in tact as long as possible.
Keep in mind though: any service in the West you currently rely on will likely go at some point in the near future, and some may not give you any warning at all.
> But this is virtue signalling at its worst
No, it is not virtue signalling, they are pretty much based in Ukraine.
Bro idk if you know what its like living in an autocratic regime. But try going to a black lives matters event and wait to be teargassed by the cops, then realize its WAY more blatant in russia.
The example that comes to mind is Solidarity, but with the kind of popularity that Putin inexplicably still has that may not be a viable option, and it would have to be very carefully planned and coordinated, going off half-cocked will just get lots of people shot in the streets, setting this up will take a lot of time. Alternatively, some of the remaining bigshots may decide to throw Putin under the bus (or, preferably, a tank).
I've been setting up infrastructure to do blockade running over the obviously coming great Russian firewall for the last few days and made a mistake of relying on your service. I did expect payment troubles. I did not expect you to help the Kremlin in isolating the Russian populace from uncensored news and communication platforms beyond its reach. Right now my grandparents are going to have greater problem finding news about the war from any other source beyond Putin-controlled bullshit faucets, and so will I. It's likely also the case for antiwar protesters.
Isolating Russian users from foreign internet services is literally the Kremlin's dream, something it could not achieve for a long time even with all the power amassed over the years. It's revolting to see Namecheap and others doing Putin's job for him, while claiming to stand up against his war crimes. And spare me the "tax dollar" spiel. The overwhelming revenue going towards the war comes from oil and gas exports (even more so with the currency crisis), something that is explicitly not being sanctioned - less the Western tech executives are inconvenienced.
If you're going to harm people because of their country of birth to feel better about yourself - say it straight. What you're doing right now will not help a single Ukrainian, and will make Putin more resilient, not less.