8Chan & Epik

[MapleDots]

Controversial web forum 8chan has moved its domain name to a new registrar after it was linked to at least one of the two mass shootings that occurred in the US over the weekend.

According to Whois records, it’s just jumped to racist-friendly Epik, having been registered at Tucows since 2003.

The switch appears to have happened in the last few hours. At time of writing, you’re going to get different results depending which Whois server you ping.

Some servers continue to report Tucows as the registrar of record, perhaps using cached data, but Epik’s result looks like this:

http://domainincite.com/24593-after-more-racist-shootings-take-one-guess-which-registrar-8chan-just-switched-to?

 

[JayT]

I feel like writing wiki since one here thinks it's legit. Besides a few of my own stories, there are others, real famous people, that can't even edit fallacy from their page. It's hardly a secret, I thought. But some people, people not like me obviously must keep reading rags that preach wiki or something.

I won't talk much about it and I do have a few experiences. I am only going on this because it even relates to well, 4chan. See, I like memes. I use to play games, real well, before it was popular, before computers were really even capable of screen recording.

Now, this isn't a real big deal, but a lot of the 'new kids' like to take credit for a lot of things that were invented, said and done well before their time. Each of the 4chan, wow and these type sites which are popular with kids have wiki pages FULL of fallacy, and giving credit where not due.

You can swear up and down and tell mod, but it's ur word vs the world, basically. Being right doesn't mean even MOST people are going to agree with you!

 

[Paul]

Just as a reminder, discussion here to needs to focus on domaining. It's okay to wander a little bit into politics and policy that relate to domaining, but this is the wrong thread for general political debate. I understand that there is a lot at stake here, and that the underlying issue is much larger than our industry, but this is an industry-specific forum. Please be careful to avoid fueling off-topic political discussion in this thread.

Edit: Note that I'm not carefully reading everything posted here, just checking in sporadically; I have other work that I need to do. If you see anything problematic, please report it, and a moderator will take a look as soon as possible. I'm not presently able to respond to reports in this thread, so please don't contact me directly with any concerns; use the "Report" link instead.

 

[xynames]

“As soon as we were notified of the content that Epik was hosting, we made the decision to totally ban them,” Voxility business development VP Maria Sirbu told The Verge. Sirbu said it was unlikely that Voxility would work with Epik again. “This is the second situation we’ve had with the reseller and this is not tolerable,” she said.
https://www.theverge.com/2019/8/5/2...fline-voxility-service-cutoff-hate-speech-ban

And we all know what the first situation was.

 

[Rob Monster]

Official statement on Acceptable Use Policy has been posted:

https://epik.com/blog/epik-draws-line-on-acceptable-use.html

We will not host 8Chan -- it is over the line. We have the technical ability to do it but have elected not to do it.

The entire premise of an Anonymous site with only anonymous users without 24/7 skilled moderation does not provide adequate framework for self-policing.

Tweeted here:

https://twitter.com/EpikDotCom/status/1158822176985964544

 

[frank-germany]

Well, keep in mind that the Wikipedia article is a hit piece likely written by SPLC or its proxies. Try to make an edit on that page.

Our company focus going forward is on registrar, marketplace and domain finance. I support lawful free speech, but am not going to be a poster child for it.

We have an awesome set of products, are governed by principles and values, and treat everyone one as an individual without bias or preference. We have walked that talk.

where exactly is Wikipedia
not telling the truth?
where is it hostile propanda?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epik_(domain_registrar) :

 

[Paul]

@Rob Monster, do you think this decision will have a broader impact on our industry beyond the incident at hand? What are the consequences for us onlookers?

 

[JayT]

hey @frank-germany, right from the start you can see the negative bias to the wiki post for epik. They can't get the 'racist' bit out there fast enough. A lot of company are more dirty than this epik, you think? GAB.com isn't any big deal, how is this gab doing anything bad that others aren't?! IMO others are worse! Just a lot of social justice warriors loyal to fb and keeping people on the 'right' sites that mod this wiki post.

They claim he is hosting counterfeit meds and all that. Give me a break. The hyperlink ISNT EVEN A CITATION, just a link to what counterfeit meds are! DECEPTION. Spammers spam my forum with that crap, im always shutting that stuff down!! If not, guess what? FBI shuts it down. Guy can't help ppl put this junk on domains they buy there. So he's a good guy, and won't go banning sites every-time crybabies act up. They're going to go SOMEWHERE, those bad people, and they're everywhere, wake up!

Tired of playing 'who's the victim today' when these justice warriors go to change the world by shouting words like 'racist', 'shut them down' over the internet, and nothing more. The type that RUN from some mass killer. Let me tell you, that's shallow thinking, it takes A LOT more than that to win.

PS: your next post, he will probably answer you. It should be obvious a lot of that is fake, OVER-EXAGGERATED, misleading etc etc. It SHOULD be plain as day IMO.

 

[frank-germany]

hey @frank-germany, right from the start you can see the negative bias to the wiki post for epik. They can't get the 'racist' bit out there fast enough. A lot of company are more dirty than this epik, you think? GAB.com isn't any big deal, how is this gab doing anything bad that others aren't?! IMO others are worse! Just a lot of social justice warriors loyal to fb and keeping people on the 'right' sites that mod this wiki post.

ok
its biased

but where is the lie?

 

[Larion]

What if next lunatic mass shooter publishes his/her crazy manifesto on Google doc?

if that happens, just shut down Google.com and all its services.
Should not be a big deal to do that...

 

[Rob Monster]

@Rob Monster, do you think this decision will have a broader impact on our industry beyond the incident at hand? What are the consequences for us onlookers?

I will say this -- there are very few companies in the world that likely have the combination of resources needed to withstand the level of multi-vector deplatforming pressure that was applied in the context of 8Chan. This was highly coordinated.

The reason why we did not announce our decision to no-route on Monday is because it would have implied that we did it because we had no choice. We demonstrated overnight that we were able to fully recover, and start routing, including on our own IPs.

As for our infrastructure, it is resilient. Epik.com was barely impacted. Our CDN is decentralized and multi-vendor by design. We can add as many nodes as we like and are doing so, but were disappointed by Voxility, and Vultr. They were both weenies.

I believe the consequence for "onlookers" is that even though forum sites, including NamePros, can claim CDA 230 immunity, the fact is that there are organizations with vast resources that are in a position to destroy you, and possibly worse.

Personally, I am not really one who is governed by fear, so that was not a driving force here. However, I do care a lot about the wellbeing of our other clients and think that their interests are best served by Epik not being a martyr for unmoderated free speech.

 

[Arfy]

I have to say Epik recovered remarkably quickly and it sounds like none of their core services were affected. Rob and the company have taken a huge step in utilizing decentralized technology and it is great to see it in action. After all one of the main benefits of blockchain technology is constant, undefeatable uptime. Not really related to the topic but being the Crypto King I wanted to give a nod to decentralization.

 

[blank]

Fast service recovery indeed. This makes me trust epik services even more.

@Rob Monster - bold not to announce the decision on Monday. You guys did prove a point from the technological point of view but you also fueled some discussions that might be less than ideal for epik.

As for my co-nationals at voxility ... quite disappointing from more than one point of view.

 

[Internet.Domains]

First I am pro decentralization. Although, like all technologies, it can be used in good ways and bad ways. Ironically, users of 8chan are now moving to a decentralized platform based out of ZeroNet.IO. Per BBC:

"A copycat version of 8chan has already appeared on ZeroNet. And in theory any messages posted cannot be removed by administrators or law enforcement, because the content is shared across so many different devices."

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.bbc.co.uk/news/amp/technology-49249574


Will the ball continue to roll? Will ZeroNet.IO do something? Will Namecheap, as the registrar, step in?

Something tells me this is not over.

 

[Brian L.]

This might have already been mentioned, but I don’t see how a registrar should be held accountable for the actions of a particular website. That would be like holding a phone company accountable for a threat made from a particular phone number. It’s just not practical for every company to police everything their customers are doing at all times.

 

[Arfy]

First I am pro decentralization. Although, like all technologies, it can be used in good ways and bad ways. Ironically, users of 8chan are now moving to a decentralized platform based out of ZeroNet.IO. Per BBC:

"A copycat version of 8chan has already appeared on ZeroNet. And in theory any messages posted cannot be removed by administrators or law enforcement, because the content is shared across so many different devices."

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.bbc.co.uk/news/amp/technology-49249574


Will the ball continue to roll? Will ZeroNet.IO do something? Will Namecheap, as the registrar, step in?

Something tells me this is not over.

Interesting. I guess the power is with the people when it comes to decentralization. If you are bad you can participate in a bad network if you are good then you can participate in a good one. When I say participate I mean be a node in the network. The age long good vs evil will continue until the last day. Not saying anyone mentioned is bad or good just mean in general.

 

[dirk]

Crypto King, post: 7342091, member: 992121"]Interesting. I guess the power is with the people when it comes to decentralization. If you are bad you can participate in a bad network if you are good then you can participate in a good one. When I say participate I mean be a node in the network. The age long good vs evil will continue until the last day. Not saying anyone mentioned is bad or good just mean in general.

It will also protect you in a more sophisticated way against DDOS attacks. They have been becoming a real problem over the last decade.

Https://cybermap.kaspersky.com paints a nice picture.

@Rob Monster how big in terms of Gbit/s was the attack? If you can't disclose this info I understand as a lot of companies are a bit hesitant to share info about their mitigation capacity.

 

[Internet.Domains]

The users of 8chan are still using services of Vultr through the ZeroNet gateway.

In other words, they have done nothing to deplatform 8chan.

You can't make this stuff up folks.

 

[Rob Monster]

It will also protect you in a more sophisticated way against DDOS attacks. They have been becoming a real problem over the last decade.

Https://cybermap.kaspersky.com paints a nice picture.

@Rob Monster how big in terms of Gbit/s was the attack? If you can't disclose this info I understand as a lot of companies are a bit hesitant to share info about their mitigation capacity.

We have withstood attacks, including Layer 7 attacks, and attacks involving more than 1 million unique IPs. That was not the attack vector used here. We could defend such attacks all day long and we just end up cataloging DDoS IPs and sharing that with others. That strategy has limited firepower these days. The vector of this attack was a high level influencer who likely warned our providers to drop us or suffer the consequence. I would bet that we are almost talking "Deep State" stuff. As much as I think free speech is cool and people should have the option to sift through the digital garbage, that scenario was not going to be on the table here.

 

[Brian L.]

We have withstood attacks, including Layer 7 attacks, and attacks involving more than 1 million unique IPs. That was not the attack vector used here. We could defend such attacks all day long and we just end up cataloging DDoS IPs and sharing that with others. That strategy has limited firepower these days. The vector of this attack was a high level influencer who likely warned our providers to drop us or suffer the consequence. I would bet that we are almost talking "Deep State" stuff. As much as I think free speech is cool and people should have the option to sift through the digital garbage, that scenario was not going to be on the table here.

I certainly don’t envy your job sifting through the detritus.

 

[Lox]

Video [Epik 02:50 >>]
cbsnews.com/news/8chan-struggles-to-stay-online-after-links-to-mass-shootings/