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What's going on with Epik and Rob Monster?

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I'm catching the tail end of this, seems to be some kind of controversy...

https://domaingang.com/domain-news/rob-monster-off-twitter-after-christchurch-massacre-controversy/

Must be something odd to evoke this type of a response from one of our members.

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The views expressed on this page by users and staff are their own, not those of NamePros.
@Rob Monster. Thanks for that detail. Now, could you please answer this question below? You rose it and it deserves an answer.

Tom - I was not ignoring that request and was prepared to come back to it if folks were determined to go down that rabbit hole. We can do this in one of two ways:

1. I can simply say that I was inviting a CSI-style review of the crime scene to figure out what this guy was about. That is actually the truth and was the extent of my forensic work into the matter.

2. I can go investigate what others have said and report back to the group. However, if I do that, it will take a bit longer and will includes links and images that some might find objectionable.

Let me know.
 
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Tom - I was not ignoring that request and was prepared to come back to it if folks were determined to go down that rabbit hole. We can do this in one of two ways:

1. I can simply say that I was inviting a CSI-style review of the crime scene to figure out what this guy was about. That is actually the truth and was the extent of my forensic work into the matter.

2. I can go investigate what others have said and report back to the group. However, if I do that, it will take a bit longer and will includes links and images that some might find objectionable.

Let me know.

@Rob Monster

I would like to know what you think. Obviously the symbols and runes caught your attention. I don't think you would have asked people to discern what they mean unless you already had an idea.
 
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Here it is just 18 days ago, Epik proudly saying they are providing services to convicted criminal and hatemonger Tommy Robinson:
tommy-robinson-epic-connection.png

https://gab.com/epik

"Promoting lawful free speech" ?

No.

In May 2018, Robinson was sentenced to 13 months' imprisonment for contempt of court after publishing a Facebook Live video of defendants entering a law court, contravening a court order that disallows reporting on such trials while proceedings are ongoing
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tommy_Robinson_(activist)
 
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In France Facebook and Youtube are being sued for showing that video.
https://www.lemonde.fr/pixels/artic...ntre-facebook-et-youtube_5440972_4408996.html

In the UK there is a criminal offence of "glorifying terrorism." It is not well defined so it could be applied very broadly.

I noticed in some of the Gab stuff that Epik was providing services of some kind to a Tommy Robinson, in the UK - who has been convicted of several criminal offences and promotes hate speech credited with causing attacks. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tommy_Robinson_(activist).



Tommy Robinson is a pseudonym, the real name is Julian Yaxley-Lennon. Perhaps he chose his pseudonym as a homage to gay rights activist Tom Robinson:
[/QUOTE]

We are not hosting any of that content. There were 2 IPFS files put out there but I am not sure who posted them. At one point I linked to them. Those links are gone now and shortly our Anonymize IPFS gateway will be down.

As for Tommy Robinson, I have spoken to him on the phone once. I am not sure he is really enjoying his celebrity. Yes, we are his registrar. That much is true. If he goes to prison, I doubt he will be on YouTube.

Are you planning to condemn YouTube for posting his videos? He still has a channel there:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC6wdP5hTf_phre6Q3kFiV2g

His Panodrama has a lot of views. I have not watched it personally. Hopefully justice is served in his case. When I talked to him, he seemed overwhelmed but did not seem like a violent guy.

I contrast that with Chris Cantwell, who I also spoke with and has since been removed by Gab. That guy was overly-caffeinated or something. As much as I believe anyone is redeemable, Chris did disappoint me.

On the session that I had with Striker, the original was taken down but someone made a backup, that was supposed to be a one-on-one visit. They turned it into a livestream. I had no idea. I promoted non-violence.
 
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@Rob Monster

I would like to know what you think. Obviously the symbols and runes caught your attention. I don't think you would have asked people to discern what they mean unless you already had an idea.

No, I really don't know. Since there was a crazy amount of symbols on his weapons, I thought they might be a clue. There are folks that are theorizing that the issue was not the CGI but multiple shooters.

Example:

https://video.watchmask.com/vid/watchmask/thecrowhouse__TSum0TG75M/video.html

I am personally done with the Christchurch rabbit hole. If you want to go down it, you are on your own.
 
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No, I really don't know. Since there was a crazy amount of symbols on his weapons, I thought they might be a clue. There are folks that are theorizing that the issue was not the CGI but multiple shooters.

Example:

https://video.watchmask.com/vid/watchmask/thecrowhouse__TSum0TG75M/video.html

I am personally done with the Christchurch rabbit hole. If you want to go down it, you are on your own.

@Rob Monster

You took us down along with you in this rabbit hole. So now it is important to bring everything into the light:

John 3:19 New International Version (NIV)
19 This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but people loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil.

It is troubling that you are hosting so many conspiracy theory videos on your platform, watchmask.com, that claim to be spreading the truth, yet are forcing their own narratives upon the viewers.
 
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No, I really don't know. Since there was a crazy amount of symbols on his weapons, I thought they might be a clue.

@Rob Monster

So aren't you curious? Didn't you take the time to find out since you pointed them out?
 
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I, for one, who have kept quiet on this subject, am satisfied that Rob Monster has acted now appropriately and been forthright and open in answering justified points raised concerning his posts and business. It is perhaps surely now that we should all take a step back and actually think whether carrying on debating this is actually doing more harm than good and giving oxygen to the horrific atrocity of the murders that took place, and by doing so, in some perverse way, glorifying it in some peoples unbalanced minds.

Finally, might I point out that by trying to incorporate the likes of Tommy Robinson (Julian Yaxley-Lennon) is smacking on censorship of those disliked by some, especially as the case in question has been ordered to be heard again as the original findings of the lower court that found him guilty and sentenced him have been found to be in error in law. I say this as someone who thinks that his actions are unwarranted and I personally find his political arguments simplified to the point of being ridiculous - but in the UK we like to try and uphold the belief that a person is innocent until being proved guilty in a court of law. Might I point out that in the UK, the Government has NOT proscribed the organisation that person belongs to - so why is it for others to suggest that Epik should do what the UK Government has not?

Further our laws in the UK are becoming so ridiculous in themselves that now a person can be arrested and appear in court for saying something that 'MIGHT' offend someone, putting it politely it is 'Political Correctness' gone haywire.
 
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No, I really don't know. Since there was a crazy amount of symbols on his weapons, I thought they might be a clue. There are folks that are theorizing that the issue was not the CGI but multiple shooters.

Example:

https://video.watchmask.com/vid/watchmask/thecrowhouse__TSum0TG75M/video.html

I am personally done with the Christchurch rabbit hole. If you want to go down it, you are on your own.


I can see no runes on the weapon
just normal text

https://www.9news.com.au/2019/03/22...tack-facebook-youtube-social-media-extremists


these are runes:
https://www.google.com/search?q=run...wKHdytBCQQ_B0wGXoECA0QBg#imgrc=WfNDykVchyjZTM:
 
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Epik: Let's get friendly with Neo Nazis on Gab
Epik Board: One Jewish member has stepped down

Epik Twitter: OMG JEWS ARE CONTROLLING THE MEDIA, LOOK AT THIS 4CHAN GRAPHIC

Monster Twitter: OMG SHOOTING VIDEO LOOKS FAKE
Namepros: Why would you post a shooter's video in twitter and say it looks fake? It was live-streamed.
Monster Namepros: CHECK OUT THIS VIDEO FROM INFOWARS.... MAYBE IT WASN'T CGI..MAYBE THERE WERE MULTIPLE SHOOTERS
 
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upload_2019-3-25_14-6-4.png


There comes a point when interrogatory becomes defamatory witch-hunt:

https://www.dnplaybook.com/from-a-s...litator-of-hate-and-promoter-of-conspiracies/

An objective observer at NamePros might be wondering if you are skating close to the edge there and want to prevent self-harm.

As it is, you have already corrected yourself at least once:

upload_2019-3-25_14-8-31.png


That said, I am happy to give you a call to answer all your questions on or off the record. Feel free to reach out anytime.
 
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Perhaps someone is telling you something....

Show attachment 113633

There comes a point when interrogatory becomes defamatory witch-hunt:

https://www.dnplaybook.com/from-a-s...litator-of-hate-and-promoter-of-conspiracies/

An objective observer at NamePros might be wondering if you are skating close to the edge there and want to prevent self-harm.

As it is, you have already corrected yourself at least once:

Show attachment 113634

That said, I am happy to give you a call to answer all your questions on or off the record. Feel free to reach out anytime.

The message I got was that "freedom of speech" seems to go one-way when the conversation becomes inconvenient.

And I will correct any factual error in anything I write. So please, @Rob Monster, feel free to counter with facts anything I wrote.
 
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Show attachment 113633

There comes a point when interrogatory becomes defamatory witch-hunt:

https://www.dnplaybook.com/from-a-s...litator-of-hate-and-promoter-of-conspiracies/

An objective observer at NamePros might be wondering if you are skating close to the edge there and want to prevent self-harm.

As it is, you have already corrected yourself at least once:

Show attachment 113634

That said, I am happy to give you a call to answer all your questions on or off the record. Feel free to reach out anytime.

thank you for the link
I can see no problems there

just journalism
"free speech" so to say

but this time just quoting facts
 
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I missed this thread and all the controversy.
I just wanted to say that I had the pleasure to speak with Rob many times, doing business with him and he's always been super-kind. Plus I've never in my life found a CEO available to give me customer-support even for small issues.
So I can't imagine him being disrespectful in a dramatic situation like this.
Please note that my wife is from Morocco, her mother is Muslim and I don't believe in God. So I'm not defending any right-wing position, just the good person I've met.
 
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I missed this thread and all the controversy.
I just wanted to say that I had the pleasure to speak with Rob many times, doing business with him and he's always been super-kind. Plus I've never in my life found a CEO available to give me customer-support even for small issues.
So I can't imagine him being disrespectful in a dramatic situation like this.
Please note that my wife is from Morocco, her mother is Muslim and I don't believe in God. So I'm not defending any right-wing position, just the good person I've met.

The short time I met Rob for was a good experience for me as well. Please don't misinterpret this as an attack on the person.
 
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@Rob Monster, please tell me that that is not a threat.

Well, for starters, I really did delete my Twitter. It was not deleted by Twitter. That could be construed as defamatory as if to imply that I am so rogue that I had to be shown the door. Not true:

upload_2019-3-25_14-31-30.png


In fact, I restored it now so you can check it if you like.

In fact, I was never active there and don't plan to become such anytime soon but I don't want that handle falling into the wrong hands, so I restored it within the 30 day grace period.

As for your comment on DomainGang, it goes like this:

upload_2019-3-25_14-33-3.png


I might have lost your respect, but I can assure you that you do not speak for the industry nor all of humanity. You accuse me of hatemongering, but in fact the hypocrisy of that accusation is pretty obvious.

We are good though. I don't hold grudges. I would still shake your hand in public.
 

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@Rob Monster, please tell me that that is not a threat.

Of course not. Seriously, my friend, some deep breaths are in order. I have no hostile sentiments towards anyone, even my most vocal opponents, both known and unknown.
 
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The damages have been done.
Being a Business person, you should NEVER get involved in Religion or Politics.


The Blood is still bleeding. You are trying to put bandages to cover and stop it. But eventually, there will be a scar.
 
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I believe that everyone should respect the right for women (or anyone else for that matter) to Voluntarily wear headscarves, and no one should think any less of them for their choice of fashion. But if it is made Mandatory for Only the Women to wear headscarves, then that is considered a form of discrimination. An article of clothing once forced on a certain group of people can become a symbol of Suppression, Intimidation, and Hate no matter how simple or small it is, a good example is when our Jewish friends were forced to wear armbands.

If there is a law that requires to cover ones head or hair then that law must apply to everyone equally regardless of their gender or race.

All this is off-topic but due to your multiple posts about it I must let you know that in Islam, It is mandatory for men show their ankles, a man who doesn't have a beard is a sinner, and there are many more requirements for both men and women, these are the rules that we must follow. This world is a place of test and we have to obey Allah if we want to live the eternal life in heaven. If there are no rules to be followed and everyone is free to do whatever they want than what would be the difference between being a muslim and being a non-muslim? Women aren't forced to do anything, there are rules that have to be followed by both men and women and millions of women not only cover their head but their face and their body willingly because they want to obey Allah. And just like there are states that would punish you for breaking any law there are punishments for breaking laws in religion too.
 
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Probably I am not going to make any friends (again), but I have a problem with the current posturing of Epik as a warrior for free speech.

The way I see it it has never been about free speech. I see a two-fold objective:

  1. alt-right propaganda under the guise of free speech, and conspiracy theories in general
  2. to promote Epik products and services
I know Rob is going to strongly disagree, but 2) is hard to disprove.
To be clear, I welcome and support commercial entities that embrace values and try to make the world a better place. But I have a problem with debasement of values. There is a disconnect what Epik says and what Epik does.

If Epik had chosen to support people who are truly dedicated to free speech, upholding civil liberties and against censorship, etc then I would look at Epik differently today. Epik is the proverbial lost sheep.

Finally, when it comes to liberating technology Epik is not offering anything special or revolutionary. Take the VPN service: it's just Openvpn repackaged with a bit of marketing. Epik is a commercial provider and hoster among many others. Not some kind of maverick or disrupter.

People who want to circumvent censorship can for example use Tor, I2P or other platforms and go underground. There is plenty of free software solutions to protect your privacy like PGP that has been available for a very long time.
Freedom-minded individuals have not waited for a savior like Epik.

In fact, the numerous private corporations that have donated to any of those open-source projects have contributed more to freedom and free speech than Epik ever will. The company has made poor decisions due to poor judgment, and needs realignment.
 
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Probably I am not going to make any friends (again), but I have a problem with the current posturing of Epik as a warrior for free speech.

The way I see it it has never been about free speech. I see a two-fold objective:

  1. alt-right propaganda under the guise of free speech, and conspiracy theories in general
  2. to promote Epik products and services
I know Rob is going to strongly disagree, but 2) is hard to disprove.
To be clear, I welcome and support commercial entities that embrace values and try to make the world a better place. But I have a problem with debasement of values. There is a disconnect what Epik says and what Epik does.

If Epik had chosen to support people who are truly dedicated to free speech, upholding civil liberties and against censorship, etc then I would look at Epik differently today. Epik is the proverbial lost sheep.

Finally, when it comes to liberating technology Epik is not offering anything special or revolutionary. Take the VPN service: it's just Openvpn repackaged with a bit of marketing. Epik is a commercial provider and hoster among many others. Not some kind of maverick or disrupter.

People who want to circumvent censorship can for example use Tor, I2P or other platforms and go underground. There is plenty of free software solutions to protect your privacy like PGP that has been available for a very long time.
Freedom-minded individuals have not waited for a savior like Epik.

In fact, the numerous private corporations that have donated to any of those open-source projects have contributed more to freedom and free speech than Epik ever will. The company has made poor decisions due to poor judgment, and needs realignment.

For clarity:

- The VPN is mostly free. There is a paid option but the vast majority choose the free option.

- OpenVPN is a best practice used by many VPN providers. It just just a way to assure folks there is no eavesdropping going on.

- Our VPN is really about enabling an alternative way to resolve DNS while also providing complete end-to-end encryption between publisher (powered by BitMitigate) and user (powered by Anonymize).

The rest is your opinion shaped by your bias. I disagree with you but that's fine. I have reached out to you privately in the past and you have been evasively hiding behind some pseudonym. Why?

As for free speech, I am doing my part. I am pretty sure I do more for free speech in a month than you have accomplished in your life. However, open to reviewing your body of work there if you like.
 
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I want to talk about Epik the registrar not Rob for a little bit. They have some features helpful for domainers that nobody else has.

In the performance tab you get estibots valuation for free along with domain authority number and how many Whois searches have been performed on your name in the past 6 months. There are likely other pluses for domainers I haven’t noticed yet.

They offer an $8.49 renewal for NameProers which is lower than most. They offer a free of commission sale venue if the domain is at Epik. They offer instant transfers out if you decide to leave or sell your name. They accept bitcoin payments. They offer loans.

For me, they check almost all the boxes. This is how I decide where to take or leave my names at. Epik the registrar shows me they are one of the most domainer friendly registrars out there. Actions are what matter to me. Not Twitter posts.

This thread has been more enlightening about the people posting in it than about Rob. Carry on with your bashfest and I sincerely hope you are never attacked on the internet like he has been.
 
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I want to talk about Epik the registrar not Rob for a little bit. They have some features helpful for domainers that nobody else has.

In the performance tab you get estibots valuation for free along with domain authority number and how many Whois searches have been performed on your name in the past 6 months. There are likely other pluses for domainers I haven’t noticed yet.

They offer an $8.49 renewal for NameProers which is lower than most. They offer a free of commission sale venue if the domain is at Epik. They offer instant transfers out if you decide to leave or sell your name. They accept bitcoin payments. They offer loans.

For me, they check almost all the boxes. This is how I decide where to take or leave my names at. Epik the registrar shows me they are one of the most domainer friendly registrars out there. Actions are what matter to me. Not Twitter posts.

This thread has been more enlightening about the people posting in it than about Rob. Carry on with your bashfest and I sincerely hope you are never attacked on the internet like he has been.

Estibot's valuation is terrible and other registrars provide free valuations as well. The other "feature" points you raise are also available at other registrars. Actions are what we are talking about. And if you choose to see some and ignore others, well that's enlightening as well.
 
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