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Queer.af mastodon instance has been shut down by the Taliban (not a joke, they seized the domain name).
https://akko.erincandescent.net/notice/AenoDMPN0SdVXSq9ZY
It’s got nothing to do with Mastodon. Mastodon did not “comply” because Mastodon has no say one way or the other.
Where TLDs are associated with particular countries then the national registrar for that country controls who is allocated domains under it.
Example: ‘.fr’ is associated with France and is controlled by a French organisation.
‘.af’ is similarly controlled by an Afghanistan organisation and they can choose to grant or revoke ownership of domains under that TLD however they like.
The Mastodon instance will need to move to a new domain.
This right here. I believe Vanuatu recalled all theirs not long ago. The average person can still register plenty of country tlds but if you do, be aware and ready for the day it gets recalled.
Some amount of centralisation in domain management is necessary, in order to agree who owns what.
Devolving control of TLDs to respective nations was actually a GOOD idea because it means each country can operate those TLDs in a way that fits their needs, which is already much better than all global TLDs being operated by a single organisation.
The main mistake is that queer .af chose to register a domain controlled by a government who was very likely to have problems with what they were using it for.
Nowadays there are a large number of ‘new’ TLDs which are not nationally controlled and may be a better choice.
Countries only control the tlds that represent them, af for Afghanistan, co.uk (obvious) .us (obvious), etc. The rest like the standard com, net, info and the others recently added like taxi, xyz, vip, etc are controlled by icann.org. Plenty of country tlds are freely available for anyone to use but buyer beware, there is precedent for a country to pull those domains back and not let others use them anymore.
The only ones subject to state power are the tlds that represent countries or states, counties, etc. The other tlds are controlled by another central body that isn’t connected to any country and it would take a judge ordering a seizure for a domain to be taken down.
Basically if they had gone with any of the other shit ton of tlds that aren’t for a specific country they would still be up and running. I can’t say that I wouldn’t have grabbed that tld given the chance but knowing it was Afghanistan I wouldn’t have used that as my main domain.
That’s not how that works. Domains are registered and basically rented year by year from registrars and they seized it from them.
Mastodon has nothing to do with it. Mastodon is like lemmy, anyone can run their own instance. For example I have a ton of domains, most notably to go along with my username I’ve “owned” rdyoung.info for like 20 years now. I could run my own instance and point that domain at it or the other ones I own.
yea but why did mastodon comply with their request to seize?
what if they just deny them their request?
It’s got nothing to do with Mastodon. Mastodon did not “comply” because Mastodon has no say one way or the other.
Where TLDs are associated with particular countries then the national registrar for that country controls who is allocated domains under it.
Example: ‘.fr’ is associated with France and is controlled by a French organisation.
‘.af’ is similarly controlled by an Afghanistan organisation and they can choose to grant or revoke ownership of domains under that TLD however they like.
The Mastodon instance will need to move to a new domain.
since domain is centralized and subject to a state power.
is it possible to change that or any workaround?
The national top-level domains are MEANT to be controlled by their relevant nation-states. They are not intended to be part of vanity URLs.
So there’s nothing to “fix” here. This is the system working as intended, basically.
This right here. I believe Vanuatu recalled all theirs not long ago. The average person can still register plenty of country tlds but if you do, be aware and ready for the day it gets recalled.
Some amount of centralisation in domain management is necessary, in order to agree who owns what.
Devolving control of TLDs to respective nations was actually a GOOD idea because it means each country can operate those TLDs in a way that fits their needs, which is already much better than all global TLDs being operated by a single organisation.
The main mistake is that queer .af chose to register a domain controlled by a government who was very likely to have problems with what they were using it for.
Nowadays there are a large number of ‘new’ TLDs which are not nationally controlled and may be a better choice.
Countries only control the tlds that represent them, af for Afghanistan, co.uk (obvious) .us (obvious), etc. The rest like the standard com, net, info and the others recently added like taxi, xyz, vip, etc are controlled by icann.org. Plenty of country tlds are freely available for anyone to use but buyer beware, there is precedent for a country to pull those domains back and not let others use them anymore.
another issue is migrating accounts losses post history.
Is there really no way to keep post history with same instance new domain name?
This is the internet equivalent of choosing to open a gay bar in Kabul instead of San Francisco.
There were plenty of safe spaces, they chose terribly.
The only ones subject to state power are the tlds that represent countries or states, counties, etc. The other tlds are controlled by another central body that isn’t connected to any country and it would take a judge ordering a seizure for a domain to be taken down.
Basically if they had gone with any of the other shit ton of tlds that aren’t for a specific country they would still be up and running. I can’t say that I wouldn’t have grabbed that tld given the chance but knowing it was Afghanistan I wouldn’t have used that as my main domain.
That’s not how that works. Domains are registered and basically rented year by year from registrars and they seized it from them.
Mastodon has nothing to do with it. Mastodon is like lemmy, anyone can run their own instance. For example I have a ton of domains, most notably to go along with my username I’ve “owned” rdyoung.info for like 20 years now. I could run my own instance and point that domain at it or the other ones I own.
the morons who registered teh domain, signed it over to the government ‘for safe keeping’ and then the government turned into the literal taliban.
dont sign your domains over to some foreign power or youre gunna have a bad time