Namecheap is banning Russians, asks them to switch registrars

Namecheap Russia

Domain registrar Namecheap is emailing customers registered in Russia saying it will no longer provide them with services because of Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

"Unfortunately, due to the Russian regime's war crimes and human rights violations in Ukraine, we will no longer be providing services to users registered in Russia," the company says in the emails sent earlier today.

"While we sympathize that this war may not affect your own views or opinion on the matter, the fact is, your authoritarian government is committing human rights abuses and engaging in war crimes so this is a policy decision we have made and will stand by."

Namecheap also asked Russian users to move their top-level domains to other providers until March 6 and offered to help those who reach out for assistance with the move.

The company added that all affected domains would be automatically configured to display 403 Forbidden HTTP errors.

"If you hold any top-level domains with us, we ask that you transfer them to another provider by March 6, 2022," Namecheap added.

"Additionally, and with immediate effect, you will no longer be able to use Namecheap Hosting, EasyWP, and Private Email with a domain provided by another registrar in zones .ru, .xn--p1ai (рф), .by, .xn--90ais (бел), and .su.

"All websites will resolve to 403 Forbidden, however, you can contact us to assist you with your transfer to another provider."

Namecheap's CEO also told Russians angry about the company's decision that they have a lot of other providers they can choose to get the same services.

"We haven't blocked the domains, we are asking people to move. There are plenty of other choices out there when it comes to infrastructure services so this isn't 'deplatforming'," Namecheap CEO Richard Kirkendall explained.

"People that are getting angry need to point that at the cause, their own government. If more grace time is necessary for some to move, we will provide it."

Namecheap is a US-based technology company and an ICANN-accredited domain registrar with over 1,700 employees across 18 countries.

It provides domain registration, DNS, web hosting, and other services to over 2 million customers worldwide and manages more than 14 million domains.

Results for “"emailing"”

Namecheap terminates services for Russians, asks them to move domains

Namecheap is banning Russians, asks them to switch registrars