Thanks
@MapleDots. When I resigned, it was a private decision that I only discussed after the fact with a few industry colleagues whom I trust. Since 1 of my goals was to prevent unnecessary damage to Epik, I mentioned my resignation here at NamePros in such a way that it would be timestamped but not become a headline or add fuel to the fire.
For a few days, nobody noticed, as intended. But then it got picked up – in part because of something Rob said, as I recall. Still, I'm glad that I did not become a distraction from the real issues. It's not that I'm afraid of exposure. Obviously, I've stepped into a public controversy and willingly taken plenty of flak for explaining "what's going on with Epik and Rob Monster". Nobody asked me to. But I'm not the story, and as "juicy" as a feud or rift between Rob and me would be, that doesn't help build consensus about real issues that needed to be addressed. Even though disagreements about those issues linger and will never be fully resolved, I think "what's going on" is now much clearer to people than it was in the immediate reaction to Rob's tweet about NZ.
3 days after I resigned on March 26, Kevin Murphy of DomainIncite asked me for an on-the-record statement explaining why. Since the cat was already out of the bag, I supplied one. I wrote my answer without consulting with anyone. After sending it, I showed it to Rob so that he'd know what to expect. Evidently Kevin decided not to publish it, which was fine by me.
Later, so many people asked me about the resignation that it would have been handy to point to a public statement. If nothing else, it would have saved me time to point to what I'd already written. Pointing people to a sprawling NamePros thread, full of bickering and tangents, wasn't very useful as a synopsis of why I quit. Meanwhile, explaining that choice repeatedly, from scratch, in a hurry, tends to be sloppy.
People are asking me directly why I resigned. It's a fair question, which I see no legitimate reason to ignore. So, even though I still have misgivings about becoming a hammer that people will use to bash Rob / Epik, I'll answer. Since the statement I wrote earlier was meant for public consumption and written close to the moment of my resignation, it seems like a suitable explanation. Here it is verbatim.
Note: I'm not asking anybody to CARE why I resigned or even to read this. This post only exists because I'm not going to sidestep a direct question.
Question: "You quit?"
Answer:
Yes, it's true that I decided not to continue at Epik. It wasn't an easy choice, since I've had a very positive experience working at the company. I like my colleagues and my boss. The job of running a registrar is interesting. No 2 days are ever alike. Epik products, features, and services are already strong and improving steadily. Customers are happy. In many areas, Epik has been an innovator. Growth opportunities are abundant, and I've enjoyed strategizing for Epik's success.
I wasn't planning to leave at all. There was scandal, it's true, in 2018 when Epik permitted Gab.com to be transferred after the domain was suspended at GoDaddy. We withstood that initial controversy. Within the Gab forum, there is racist content that I consider utterly vile and abhorrent, even dangerous. But I have always taken a hard stance in favor of free speech and advocated for due process and registrar neutrality with respect to legal content. Since my views on de-platforming and censorship coincide with Rob's, it was easy for me to support his decision, once I learned of it, to allow Gab.com to exist in public view. And I still fully support that decision.
The scandal lingered, however. Whereas for me Gab.com was just 1 domain among hundreds of thousands of domains at Epik, a controversial website that repelled me and to which I paid no attention whatsoever, for Rob the Gab forum was more important. With good intentions, Rob engaged actively with Gab members and promoted the site as part of a broader alt-tech / free-speech cause. Rob wants to make the web more open, websites more resilient, and browsing more private. Epik has developed products in those areas. Hence Rob found legitimate common ground with Gab members who distrust Big Brother and who have been exposed to censorship.
Rob being politically and socially conservative, he also found enough overlap with Gab members that he could participate in discussions and share his individual opinions. Even though Rob doesn't share the racism exhibited by some Gab members, he was able to tolerate them, perhaps as a christian with a wish to convert and soften. Unfortunately, this proximity to racist views allowed the press, which was already hostile toward Gab and angry with Epik for having kept Gab alive, to caricature Rob unfairly as an antisemite and white nationalist whose free-speech concerns were merely a subterfuge for spreading alt-right propaganda. That is false. As a progressive, my own views are very different from Rob's. But I have always observed Rob to treat others with respect, including muslim employees, jewish board members and colleagues – anyone. Diversity of opinion and background has always been actively welcomed by Rob at Epik.
None of this would have led me to resign were it not for some unfortunate public comments Rob made about the recent New Zealand massacre. Specifically, Rob disseminated a video of the shooting, expressing doubts about its authenticity. Acting as an individual, Rob has every right to share his opinion. And I'm inclined to believe, with Rob, that footage should not be censored everywhere online. But for any CEO to invite such political controversy is unwise. And this particular case was especially damaging for Epik, since we had inherited the Gab scandal after a similar shooting in a Pittsburgh synagogue. So this unnecessary action now linked the Epik brand to 2 massacres targeting minority groups.
Though Rob did not mean to give offense, this incident did bother me. Distrust of the mainstream media might lead someone like Rob to question the received narrative without any ill will toward muslims. And yet, even though Rob himself is as innocent disbelieving this footage as he is disbelieving in the moon landing, narratives dismissive of white nationalist terrorism strike me as insidious. Since Epik has multiple muslim employees and I myself have ties to the muslim community, the casualness with which Rob made these comments struck me as insensitive. One of the memes he shared inside Gab (which was later shown to me) was also insensitive toward muslims, though I must point out that such misconceptions are shared by half the population of the USA. More importantly, Rob shows himself to be tolerant and friendly toward muslims in actual life.
Insensitivity is not intolerance. Rob made a mistake and has already shown a willingness to listen to concerns raised after this scandal by muslims and others. I would not quit based on insensitivity or a mistake. Both can be fixed. Rob has always been open and receptive to input.
Rather, I came to the conclusion that some of the public identifies Epik with Gab and with alt-right politics to such an extent that repositioning Epik as a mainstream brand will be difficult. The abstract principles of registrar neutrality and free speech, which I care about as much as Rob does, are now, in Epik's case, entangled with questions of political ideology. That is to say, the public suspects that free speech has a sinister covert agenda. Disentangling free speech from political views is possible, but the explanations are long and often disbelieved. In practice, most people draw superficial conclusions without fully understanding the circumstances of Epik's involvement with Gab or even the distinction between Rob's personal views and Epik positions.
This recent scandal emerged as a result of my boss's private political views while I was focused on Epik features, products, and services. It is difficult to work effectively under those conditions. It is unclear how I should defend the Epik brand when it is being attacked for private opinions, which I don't share and which have nothing to do with Epik really. The public insists nonsensically that Rob = Epik, and I'm not Rob. Even worse, many seem to think Gab = Rob = Epik, which obligates me to distinguish between Rob's views and the views of racists in Gab, neither of which are mine or Epik's.
Dealing with the scandal has proved to be a distraction from my primary role at Epik, and it interferes with my responsibility to present Epik as a neutral registrar. Also, given Epik's investment in innovative services related to website resiliency and privacy, it is inevitable that controversial websites in the future will cause this current scandal to resurface in the media, which has already written distorted, overtly hostile articles. Given this baggage, I prefer to step down and begin fresh in some other role.
Epik is a good company that I would recommend to anyone seeking a registrar or an employer. I continue to respect Rob for taking a courageous stand against de-platforming and censorship. A registrar's role in fostering free speech online remains dangerously undervalued, and Rob's decisions and motivations deserve more support and understanding from the domain industry. Gab is only 1 domain among hundreds of thousands of domains at Epik. To ensure continuity for Epik customers and staff, I will be staying on at Epik for awhile to complete unfinished tasks and projects, hand over responsibilities, and train my replacements. Epik customers will continue to receive what I genuinely believe is the best support offered by any registrar in the industry. Rob set that standard personally.
