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Social Network Gab.com being threatened by GoDaddy: 24 hours to transfer or suspension

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domainguy50

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backstory: Gab is a social network alternative to twitter. their selling point is free speech (all speech is welcome, including what you believe might be hate speech.) which is basically is the first amendment. no unlawful material is allowed, but virtually any speech is. recently they purchased the "gab com" domain for $220k.

this site is very controversial as a result, with mainstream media outlets claiming it is popular with nazi and anti-semite messages. the site has 800,000 users and has experienced modest growth recently so it really isnt all bad hate speech. regardless, those disgusting messages on the site by some users are also lawful no matter how distasteful they are. as a result of these media attacks, (and the recent revelation that the synagogue shooter in pittsburgh yesterday had an active gab profile) gab is being unfairly targeted by smear campaigns online reporting the site as "a hate speech site" via email to gab's service providers.

gabs host (microsoft) revoked its contract with gab a few months ago

gabs payment providers (paypal and stripe) just revoked their services

just a few minutes ago, godaddy has said they will stop working with gab:
(i cant post the image or link idk why)
"BREAKING: Godaddy is threatening to suspend our domain (which is worth six figures) if we do not transfer to a new provider by tomorrow. This is madness."

the complexity of the situation is compounded by the fact that Gab is on a payment plan to fully own the domain since they recently purchased it. the broker/escrow agent control this which makes it even more difficult for the company to transfer to a new registrar by EOD tomorrow.

I understand that Godaddy is a private business and its clauses may allow it to do this, but this seems extreme overreaction. "24 hours to transfer or else" is a very menacing way of doing business.

-if you were in charge of gab what would you do? create your own payment processor, host, and DNS? they got deplatformed quickly... i guess they could try to get an offshore Hosting company or invest in native hosting.

-what is the most "free speech" friendly DNS provider there is?

-is it fair for internet infrastructure companies to de-platform a small upstart social network because of controversial speech? or should companies like DNS and hosting should be regulated and allow any customer as long as it is lawful content being hosted.
 
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The views expressed on this page by users and staff are their own, not those of NamePros.
Uni is offshore, that must have been a criterion. To some extent, they are moving away from US jurisdiction.

Which may turn out to be a very bad decision for them. Why would moving away from US jurisdiction be a good idea in these circumstances?

I'm not sure where people get the idea that Cayman is some lawless jurisdiction. It is not. People come down looking for nude beaches and casinos, and are shocked to discover that not only are such things not allowed, but you can't even buy groceries on Sunday.

"Moving away from US jurisdiction" places them well outside of the First Amendment to the US Constitution, and it would behoove Escrow.com, and their customer, to consider Cayman Penal Code Sections 88A, 88B and 125 in particular.

Where a TOS refers to the "applicable law", it is a good idea to find out what that applicable law may be.

Escrow.com is financially responsible for the decisions they make on behalf of their customers, and will be financially liable to their customers in the event they have made a bad decision here.

For an "escrow" provider to have deliberately made an irresponsible decision to place an escrowed asset at legal risk, knowing full well that laws abroad can be very different from US laws, would be quite a negligent thing for an escrow provider to have done. One would imagine their customers here would be quite disappointed in the event this turns out to have been as poor a decision on their part as it appears to be.
 
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It's one thing I've been wondering. Who made the decision to move the domain there and to what extent did Escrow have a say ? Knowing that the decision was made in an emergency and maybe not pondered like it should have been.
 
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It's one thing I've been wondering. Who made the decision to move the domain there and to what extent did Escrow have a say ? Knowing that the decision was made in an emergency and maybe not pondered like it should have been.

Can someone explain the actual role of Escrow.com here?

Someone said the domain is being bought on installments. So who is the trusted third party holding the domain - is that Escrow.com, or someone else?

The fine print in any installment agreement may prove unexpectedly important as this develops.
 
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I do believe in accountability and corporate responsibility though. All that Godaddy and other hi-tech companies have done is to draw a line and take responsibility to protect the rest of us.

Like hosting Black Lives Matters? Protecting who? Did you see the video above? One group still being hosted and “Untouchable” calls to murder police! No requesting they move.

https://www.namepros.com/threads/so...fer-or-suspension.1107245/page-5#post-6957030

https://www.namepros.com/threads/so...fer-or-suspension.1107245/page-8#post-6959960
 
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Like hosting Black Lives Matters? Protecting who? Did you see the video above? One group still being hosted and “Untouchable” calls to murder police! No requesting they move.

https://www.namepros.com/threads/so...fer-or-suspension.1107245/page-5#post-6957030

https://www.namepros.com/threads/so...fer-or-suspension.1107245/page-8#post-6959960

That's not on their site. Do you have link or screenshot to something that is? Screenshots from Gab were posted earlier, post screenshots from their site.
 
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You know that's not what I asked for. Earlier, screenshots were posted of content found on Gab. You do the same, post screenshots of content found on the Black Lives Matter site or link to content on the site, you think action should be taken on.

No My point was GD boots GAB. But GD IP addresses afaik hosts BLM. Double standard.
 
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No My point was GD boots GAB. But GD IP addresses afaik hosts BLM. Double standard.

You didn't get the point at all. I know this is just your way of dodging. If it was a double standard, you would have posted the content just like GAB. If their site doesn't have that type of content on it, why would GD have to do anything? Screenshots of content on GAB were posted. You do the same for Black Lives Matter site, next post.
 
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Gab owners should have seen this coming for hosting a controversial platform in the United States. Look at 4chan or 8chan. Those websites are way more disgusting than Gab yet they figured out how to slip through the cracks and stay alive.

It's not like the US Government is seizing their website and putting the owners in jail (like Backpage). That would be an outrage.
 
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Gab owners should have seen this coming for hosting a controversial platform in the United States. Look at 4chan or 8chan. Those websites are way more disgusting than Gab yet they figured out how to slip through the cracks and stay alive.

It's not like the US Government is seizing their website and putting the owners in jail (like Backpage). That would be an outrage.

That’s possibly next. Also possible lawsuits from survivors. Especially when free speech is being crushed and the “thought police” have arrived. Look at the new EU laws.
 
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For awareness, after extensive discussion with the CEO of Gab.com, we have accepted their domain registration at Epik and will make a best effort to keep them online while also coaching the CEO, Andrew, on how to navigate the waters as a responsible advocate for natural law within the boundaries of national law.

I commented further on this decision here:

https://epik.com/blog/why-epik-welcomed-gab-com.html

Let Freedom Ring.
 
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For awareness, after extensive discussion with the CEO of Gab.com, we have accepted their domain registration at Epik and will make a best effort to keep them online while also coaching the CEO, Andrew, on how to navigate the waters as a responsible advocate for natural law within the boundaries of national law.

I commented further on this decision here:

Let Freedom Ring.
Just saw the news.... Excellent news. Haven't finished reading the blog post but looks great so far.

I'd pay to see you print out the emails and tweets that will surely be coming soon from angry leftists (who will be asking you to deplatform gab) and burn them all in front of a waving american flag. Lol. Joking but These censorship mobs are relentless from what I've seen


If we deplatform and ban and censor everything that anyone ever considered hate speech, we'd be left with nothing
 
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Just saw the news.... Excellent news. Haven't finished reading the blog post but looks great so far.

I'd pay to see you print out the emails and tweets that will surely be coming soon from angry leftists (who will be asking you to deplatform gab) and burn them all in front of a waving american flag. Lol. Joking but These censorship mobs are relentless from what I've seen


If we deplatform and ban and censor everything that anyone ever considered hate speech, we'd be left with nothing

I have resolved to pray for those who would choose to send me hateful commentary. Other than that, I will do my best to be an ombudsman where appropriate.
 
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I have resolved to pray for those who would choose to send me hateful commentary. Other than that, I will do my best to be an ombudsman where appropriate.
Agreed. Hopefully with time, people understand the human value of free speech
 
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I hope GAB grows into a competitor to Twitter, I’d like to see more competition.
 
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Online content depends on several services and providers to exist - hosting, domain, possibly a CMS, possibly Cloudflare, all with their own ToS and legal responsibilities, and business models. And normally also some kind of payment processor and also ISPs used to connect. A site can change all those services and still be the same site, as long as it retains its content and users.

In most cases it seems the weak point is the hosting and its ToS which can get a site booted. Many would say a domain, unless seen as a form of speech and objectionable at that, is neutral - like a telephone number. So providing a domain is not so contentious as hosting.

You may recall that Cloudflare continued offering services to the Daily Stormer (after Godddy booted them) because they saw themselves as a neutral service provider - until Daily Stormer falsely claimed Cloudflare supported them, then Cloudflare booted them: https://blog.cloudflare.com/why-we-terminated-daily-stormer/
 
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I have resolved to pray for those who would choose to send me hateful commentary. Other than that, I will do my best to be an ombudsman where appropriate.
You are a service provider with ToS which you are free to interpret and apply, including in response to comments from people who are not your client. But ombudsman? That suggest an adjudication or complaints resolution process, I'm not sure you want to go there - some people are impossible to please and without a clear framework and procedure no one would be sure of the results.
 
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You are a service provider with ToS which you are free to interpret and apply, including in response to comments from people who are not your client. But ombudsman? That suggest an adjudication or complaints resolution process, I'm not sure you want to go there - some people are impossible to please and without a clear framework and procedure no one would be sure of the results.

As I explain in the blog post:

https://epik.com/blog/why-epik-welcomed-gab-com.html

I hope to be a sounding board for Andrew as he goes forward. From what I have gathered, he is getting wiser by the hour.
 
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I have only two things to say about all of this....

1. @robepik has made a brilliant marketing move and will probably be all over the news. It will provide a phenomenal boost to the Epik platform.

2. If I use a pencil and paper to write my hate message lets ban the pencil and paper.

Sounds kind of silly right?
 
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Thank you Rob!

All voices are important, from the left and the right. Hate is not from the left or the right and evil does not differentiate between the left and the right. There has always been and always will be differences, but when we stop listening to each other we are only left to fight and hate.

Thanks to all for the discussion.
 
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I have only two things to say about all of this....

1. @robepik has made a brilliant marketing move and will probably be all over the news. It will provide a phenomenal boost to the Epik platform.

2. If I use a pencil and paper to write my hate message lets ban the pencil and paper.

Sounds kind of silly right?

Well, there is all kinds of press -- some favorable and some hatchet jobs. Vice News called for an in-person interview for example, and yes my Twitter is blowing up. If there are mission-aligned street-savvy PR advisors, send them my way. I might need some professional advice on navigating this process.
 
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Well, there is all kinds of press -- some favorable and some hatchet jobs. Vice News called for an in-person interview for example, and yes my Twitter is blowing up. If there are mission-aligned street-savvy PR advisors, send them my way. I might need some professional advice on navigating this process.

Have you figured out how to answer:

"Let Freedom Ring."

But if your TOS is against legal content like porn (is that correct?), wouldn't places that are ok with it, be the true freedom providers? Wasn't sure if you really believed this stuff or was is just marketing?

Are you setup to handle the testing of your TOS that's sure to come? One tweet I read: "cant wait to get my troll on. GAB will not be a safe space for free hate."

Just reading up, taking a look at the reaction:
https://twitter.com/search?f=tweets&q=epik gab&src=typd&lang=en

Seems more positive than negative. Some Christian Mothers for Maga tweeting about some pharmacy stuff. Some other stuff not really good.

If there are mission-aligned street-savvy PR advisors, send them my way. I might need some professional advice on navigating this process.

Some of the not really good stuff was somebody having an issue with the concentration camp pic on your blog. Some obvious advice, don't ever use concentration camp pics for business purposes. Would not leave that one up there, visited Dachau when I was in school over there.
 
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