1735 points by exizt88 1462 days ago | 1825 comments on HN
| Moderate negative
Contested
Policy · v3.7· 2026-02-28 11:15:00· from archive
Summary Discriminatory Human Rights Action Undermines
Namecheap announces service termination for users registered in Russia, Belarus, and Donbas, citing Russian war crimes and human rights violations as explicit justification. While the policy invokes UDHR principles to defend its decision, it implements those principles through categorical nationality-based service denial, violating core UDHR articles on non-discrimination, freedom of expression, and right to work for innocent individuals.
Simply an American, and I’ll be moving my dozen domains off of Namecheap.
Attacking random Russians for something you don’t like of their leader is as dumb as post-9/11 Sikh bashing or interning German/Italian/Japanese after Pearl Harbor and the war declaration.
Given that Russian vodka is blacklisted from stores in USA (and Finland!) and replaced with message "we stand with Ukraine", it's not really surprising.
I read interview with somebody from Russia yesterday, russian tracks getting their tires punctured in EU and get stuck because credit cards don't work anymore. Ships refuse to offload goods in Russian ports and drop them of "wherever in Europe". Russian companies can't buy/rent containers to bring goods to Russia.
Edit: just to add, I myself was born in Kyiv. Company where I work now has officies both in Ukraine (in one of hotter places) and in russia. I am equally trying to help my colleagues from both offices to GTFO. Collateral damage is unfortunate for private person but frankly not surprising. What is "surprising" it's that a big chunk of Russian population is surprised by it
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". I sympathize with people that are not pro regime but ultimately even those tax dollars they may generate go to the regime. We have people on the ground in Ukraine being bombarded now non stop. I cannot with good conscience continue to support the Russian regime in any way, shape or form. 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. Free speech is one thing but this decision is more about a government that is committing war crimes against innocent people that we want nothing to do with.
This is really wrong. I'm a Russian national, and I'm not supporting aggression towards Ukraine. In contrast, I've spent last two days in police after being detained due to the fact that I dared to express my condemnation in public protest.
I am not my government, and apart from starting a one-man revolution with a pretty obvious result, I'm doing everything I can to raise awareness, condemn actions of Russian government, and put an end to this. I've been doing so since 2011, back when I was a college student.
Namecheap -- this is a low move. While I do understand that your company has a lot of Ukrainian employees, all of which are in grave danger, you're not doing anyone a favor by making a shitty life of most Russian nationals even shittier.
Why not ban every single US and NATO country users for the slaughter of many countries including but not limited to Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria, Palestine, Yemen, Libya... because of the actions of their government?
Fuck this mentality that makes the life of ordinary people harder and call it "sympathy".
Received the same email. I'm based in Lithuania and I have a Russian first name. No Russian addresses, IPs, billing info etc (because I have never been there!). How do you even select people to target with this? It's past midnight, I'm trying to figure out my options here. How exactly do the Euros I pay you from EU contribute to the Russian aggression?
If they're willing to terminate service for political reasons in this case, who's to say they won't do it in the future for other political reasons? Here begins the slippery slope of Namecheap terminating service to those it deems "wrong".
Been a happy, confident Namecheap user for a long time. Now I'm not so confident.
In general I think punishing mostly innocent individuals for a decision made by their government is a terrible way to proceed. Furthermore with the 1-week notice you're literally urging people to get off your own platform. I don't condone the Russian-Ukraine war, but just because you take a political stand -- legitimate or not -- doesn't mean it's fair to put undue pressure on .ru domain owners just because those TLDs happen to be Russian (are they even reimbursed?).
I'm not picking any sides here but I won't use Namecheap if I know it can deny me service on a whim just because the government of the country I have registered my domain name in has gone to war with another country. War is force majeure but Namecheap really didn't have to do this: it makes them an unreliable provider in regard to the current world's political instability.
It may interest you to know that Namecheap, just a few days ago, banned a few domain names purely based on an ambiguous tweet that got 8 likes, that didn't even ask for those domains to be banned or cite any ToS violation.
Namecheap then reverted that decision when they got ratioed (with no tweets supporting their decision). I've never heard of these domain names and don't keep up with crypto, but it doesn't seem like they did much research before banning them.
I was thinking of switching everything to Namecheap just a week ago, because of a friend's recommendation based on their ease-of-use.
Because of this Twitter story, and the Russian suspension, I'm now glad I didn't. You can't cancel users' service, that they paid for, and give them only a week's notice. I'm not Russian but this volatile style of customer relationships totally destroys any trust I could have in them.
As far as I can tell, Namecheap's support team (which has always been excellent) is mostly based in Ukraine. And I understand how difficult it must be to find a way to reconcile this with the fact that Namecheap has customers in Russia. Which is further complicated by the fact that some of the Russian users actively oppose Putin's regime and depend on Namecheap as a company.
And, of course, I do realize that whatever's going on with Russian customers is in no way comparable to the suffering that the Ukrainian members of the customer support team live through every day as the war goes on.
This is a very hard situation, and I hope Namecheap finds some way to resolve it (hopefully a better one that they've found for now).
This is the first European conflict of the internet era where one side gets economically isolated in a very radical way. A lot of theories about modern economic warfare and its effects, are being tested in the real world - stuff like "Country X cannot wage war because the economic blowback would destroy them". I expect the Chinese are watching it attentively, to name one interested party (eh).
If this strategy works, we might have secured the century for good. If it doesn't, it will feel like the clock has gone back 100 years - and those weren't nice times to be around.
Let me prefix this by saying I'm not Russian, I have no ties to Russia whatsoever and I strongly oppose Putin's actions in Ukraine.
That said, I wonder about the legal ramifications of this move. Namecheap is essentially unilaterally terminating a (probably yearly) contract without the other party being at fault per se. There's no legal cause.
Will they be refunding the customers they are kicking out? Or will they be keeping the money for services not rendered?
Additionally, giving people only 4 working days to move out, especially in a situation as volatile as this, seems like a bad move. Anyone hosting their life on one of the domains affected (whether they are actually in Russia or mistakenly flagged as it seems happens a lot going by this thread) might not read the message in time. They might be in hospital, jail, without internet or otherwise unable to transfer in the very short time allotted. Again, not just the people Namecheap hopes to target, but also all the people they mistakenly flagged.
(And you can bet some disgruntled Russian customer will flood the support system with whitelist requests for all .ru domains currently pointing at Namecheap NS, overloading the support system for the remaining 4 working days until the deadline)
I understand that the Namecheap CEO and many of his employees are probably having a strong emotional reaction to the current war in Ukraine which is completely understandable. I fear this will not accomplish what they really desire though. And I don't think I'll be cheering them on.
"They should stay neutral in all this!!" – people sitting comfortably in a first world country opining about a company whose 1700 employees in Ukraine – including in Kharkiv – (https://www.namecheap.com/careers/ukraine/) are literally getting murdered as we speak. What should they do? Keep taking support calls from Russia while their missiles rain from above?
I am frankly shocked and dismayed at the number of people deriding this decision. In a grey world this seems like such a black and white thing. Sure it may inconvenience a few, but on the other hand innocents are being slaughtered. All the weight of these complaints don't even begin to touch the scale when compared to literal children being murdered.
Besides all that, Namecheap is a private company and can do business with whomever they wish.
I am a Russian citizen from birth who permanently lives and works in the UK. I do not support Russian regime in any way and offered my help with relocation to Russian and Ukrainian citizens from the start - see my post in LinkedIn. On namecheap I hold non-ru related domain paid till February 2023.
So what the heck they are blaming me for being Russian and terminating the contract without any agreement?
I'm no fan of Putin or the Russian government's war, but I originally moved to Namecheap from GoDaddy over GoDaddy's support for SOPA. I want my registrar to be a registrar, not a political entity. Looks like I'll be looking for a new registrar to do business with going forward.
The Russian government are the bad guys here - people who happen to be in Russia are not. I'm not gonna do business with a company that gutpunches uninvolved individuals for political points.
I was surprised by this, until I realized that one of Namecheap's offices is in downtown Kharkiv. Today, the Russian military bombed Kharkiv with cluster munitions [1]. Civilians were killed, possibly including children [2].
Given the severity of the situation, I'm surprised that Namecheap has not opted for more drastic measures- for example, redirecting Russian web traffic. Simply transferring Russian businesses to other providers might be among the less-drastic options they considered.
What a horrifying policy. This may be tone-deaf as Namecheap has many Ukrainian employees, but this policy is antithetical to customer needs in an infrastructure company.
The US has a history entering conflicts i fervently disagree with. Wars and smaller, more targeted attacks. The idea that my business's production infrastructure could be at risk because some POTUS drone strikes the wrong wedding is exactly the sort of reactionary policy-making i try to avoid when choosing which companies i associate with my production infrastructure. This general neutrality was a reason i became a Namecheap customer many years ago.
I won't say that i can empathize at all with those deeply affected by this war. I fully understand people want to use the means at their control to change the tide here. But as a customer, this move scares me.
I don't know how this is relevant. I am very much against this war, but there is very little I can do to stop it as a regular citizen. I'm currently doing everything I can to flee the country, as I don't think my family is not safe here. I don't understand how this is supposed to harm Putin's regime or any of his supporters.
> People that are getting angry need to point that at the cause, their own government.
Believe me, I'm very angry at my government. Unlike you, I've been protesting the regime for several years, putting my health and well-being at risk. I've donated thousands of dollars to anti-regime organizations. And I'm currently in the process of fleeing the country because of this.
So I'm also very angry at you, for screwing me over when I'm in a really fucking vulnerable position, as well as hundreds other developers who depended on your company.
Truly awful. If you listen to Russian news (propaganda) they're claiming Ukranians want Russia to come liberate them and save them from poor living conditions. It's almost as if they forgot that people have the internet.
I don't understand how "collateral damage" is relevant. Aren't people supposed to minimize collateral damage? Namecheap didn't HAVE to do this. The chose to do this in a very particular way, which hurt its customers, especially those opposing Putin's regime and currently fleeing the country.
This is a terrible attempt at slippery slope argumentation. Launching a major land war while pursuing nuclear escalation is a solid cliff above cancel culture.
I mean... I would be OK if namecheap decides to terminate the service for other countries that threat the world with nuclear bombs. I think that's a whole different level.
It seems it would be completely logical to also boycott the European countries that are actively funding the Russian government with the billions of dollars that are given directly to the state, through the state owned Russian gas companies. If I'm reading this right, ~582bn~ 7bn USD (thanks Jabbles!) for just a few month last year: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/dec/13/gazprom-hits-r...
I think it makes sense that the European people should also feel the immediate pressure for actively funding the war for the foreseeable future. They're an absolutely massive income stream, and should be part of the collateral, especially since they've been warned about this for decades now.
I would be interested in seeing a counter argument to this.
I get that, and you're totally entitled to do this. And you're probably right that ends justify the means. And, probably, total damage will be worth it. But, in my insignificant personal case, I will be busy moving domains and paying for transfers instead of doing what I've been doing and spending money on what I've been spending it for the last 5 days, helping people detained and/or arrested for participating in anti-war protests (as a volunteer, see https://ovdinfo.org/).
And, you know, those people you want to point at their own government, they won't get it. They're brainwashed by Putin's propaganda which has reached true Goebbels level. It was going there for a while, Putin's regime began with gradually shutting down free media 20 years ago. Yes, people do have internet, and Russian internet is full of Putin's propaganda. Russian authorities are banning websites telling the truth (yes there's a government powered DPI firewall which every major ISP has to install by law). And they're working on a law which will make it a crime with 15 years of sentence just for calling the war the war. So I wouldn't count on that. The only thing that might work is hearing the truth from friends and families, but it's very hard to talk to those people. I'm trying, though, when there's still at least some reasoning.
I'm not complaining. While I did try to fight against the regime since its beginning, I could've done more. We screwed this up, and we're responsible, and all the inconveniences we might have cannot be compared to the suffering of people of Ukraine. Just saying.
Look at European and US sanctions, they're way more clever about it:
- Aim of sanctions is to turn Russians against Putin.
- Obviously, you want to target those that don't already hate Putin (no point in preaching to the choir).
- Sanctions should be felt, but should also direct more anger at government than the entity doing sanctions.
- For example, sanctioning a hospital or stopping medical supplies into Russia would be a stupid sanction.
- Second, you want to focus them on people who have sway. Most sanctions are focused on the wealthy and influential Russians. Forbidding oligarchs from living luxury lives in Europe is a good one.
- Your Russian users are very unlikely to hold any sway over Putin, and I'd bet 95% of them already hate Putin (no need to convince them) -- it's a tech crowd.
- My guess is that the vast majority of Namecheap customer's are exactly the ones that will protest against Putin, or organize information campaigns against him. Removing their means of communication won't advance your objective.
- If EU/US would sanction Kasparov or Navalny that would be a 0 IQ move, it's just an extremely dumb thing. This is sort of along those lines.
(I'm not Russian btw, I live in another European country and not a customer)
As an American, this affirms Namecheap as my first choice.
I would do everything in my power to isolate and fight against a country engaging in a war of conquest in the modern era. For me it would not be a choice.
Absolutely. I know this is Putin's War, but imagine asking your staff to be professional and respond to your Russian customers when they can hear Russian fighter jets overhead.
On one hand we ask large companies to show more heart and humanity, and on the other hand we rail against them when they take a principled stand.
How anyone can expect a company to honour any corporate agreement in such an environment boggles my mind. Let alone company that sells domains and prides itself on being 'cheap'.
People and principles should come first, and money second. This is exactly the world we want to live in, right? Not some capitalist dystopia.
FWIW, I do not begrudge affected customers being angry, that seems very fair. I just also think this is a very reasonable course of action by Namecheap.
> This is a very hard situation, and I hope Namecheap finds some way to resolve it
I hope Russia will find a way to resolve it, that is the root cause. And if Russia continues with this war, have you considered that Namecheap in its current form might not even exist anymore?
> I want my registrar to be a registrar, not a political entity.
Corporations are creation of states through law, and thereby inherently political entities; further, they are mechanisms of the sponsoring stakeholders —ultimately, even if indirectly, flesh and blood human beings (stockholders in the typical capitalist business enterprise) to pursue their interests, which may usually be predominantly profit for business entities, but are rarely exclusively that, when the chips are down.
> Will they be refunding the customers they are kicking out? Or will they be keeping the money for services not rendered?
Namecheap support staff is happy process your request of a refund for the service. Unfortunately, processing the refund may take a while, because the said support staff is hiding in a metro tunnel or dead.
Yeah, the employees of Namecheap are going to sleep wondering if they're going to wake up or just die in a hail of Russian MLRS rockets. Meanwhile half this forum is very concerned that Namecheap's actions sounds too much like woke cancel culture.
If it inconvenienced the few for the sake of improving matters for those innocents, that would be a different matter. But it doesn't actually do anything of a kind.
In a vacuum, yes. But the bar has been raised a bit by having one country threaten to annihilate the world as we know it, and is presently at war with the country that hosts the workforce of the suppliers. In the past trading with the enemy would get you put up against a wall, this is a very logical and understandable step.
Literally everyone is willing to terminate services for political reasons given the right reasons for their politics. If Russia was invading a city where you or your coworkers were working and your employer decided to stop doing business with them, I think you might be more forgiving
> "Country X cannot wage war because the economic blowback would destroy them"
Note that a common corollary to that is that countries cannot afford to impose sanctions on others because the economic blowback would destroy them (even sanctions against "smaller" countries, due to how global liquidity works). This is more readily acknowledged by academics, and essentially cancels out the whole theory; but for some reason didn't make it into the trickled-down-for-the-masses version.
If Western leaders apply strong sanctions, it's quite likely we'd go back around 90 years, so you won't be far off!
Why don’t you cut off United States citizens while you are at it? The regime that has probably done more damage and caused more instability to the world than any other country. The U.S. uses the entire world as their playground couping any Government that disagrees with them or refuses to bend to their demands and bombing their citizens and civilians. What about the atrocities and war crimes committed in Iraq and Afghanistan? Syria? Libya? Yemen? Etc.
Just because it is covered up or whitewashed by the media in the U.S. does not mean it is not happening.
Blaming the citizens of a country for the actions of their Government is absolutely atrocious behavior. I used to have all my domains on Namecheap. I have since moved them, but now I will make sure I never use your service ever again and will never recommend you to anyone else either.
Also the argument that tax money is supporting the regime is ridiculous. If citizens could CHOOSE how their tax money was spent it would be one thing, but in the U.S. our tax money has literally gone to providing weapons and training to terrorist organizations.
Again, this doesn’t EXCUSE the actions of the Russian government, but taking their people hostage to use as leverage is disgusting and despicable.
I've been setting up infrastructure to do blockade running over the obviously coming great Russian firewall for the last few days and made a mistake of relying on your service. I did expect payment troubles. I did not expect you to help the Kremlin in isolating the Russian populace from uncensored news and communication platforms beyond its reach. Right now my grandparents are going to have greater problem finding news about the war from any other source beyond Putin-controlled bullshit faucets, and so will I. It's likely also the case for antiwar protesters.
Isolating Russian users from foreign internet services is literally the Kremlin's dream, something it could not achieve for a long time even with all the power amassed over the years. It's revolting to see Namecheap and others doing Putin's job for him, while claiming to stand up against his war crimes. And spare me the "tax dollar" spiel. The overwhelming revenue going towards the war comes from oil and gas exports (even more so with the currency crisis), something that is explicitly not being sanctioned - less the Western tech executives are inconvenienced.
If you're going to harm people because of their country of birth to feel better about yourself - say it straight. What you're doing right now will not help a single Ukrainian, and will make Putin more resilient, not less.
Explicitly invokes 'Russian regime's war crimes and human rights violations in Ukraine' as the basis for policy, strongly framing action in human rights terms aligned with UDHR preamble.
FW Ratio: 50%
Observable Facts
Email explicitly states policy basis: 'due to the Russian regime's war crimes and human rights violations in Ukraine'
Policy invokes UDHR-aligned concepts of war crimes and human rights abuses as justification
Inferences
The company frames its action through a human rights advocacy lens, suggesting editorial alignment with UDHR principles
The explicit HR invocation contrasts sharply with the policy's structural discrimination, creating significant tension
Policy explicitly invokes Article 29(3) limitations framework—justifying rights restrictions to protect rights of others (Ukrainians affected by war crimes).
FW Ratio: 50%
Observable Facts
Email justifies policy by reference to protecting vulnerable populations: 'Russian regime's war crimes and human rights violations in Ukraine'
Email frames decision as principled limitation: 'this is a policy decision we have made and will stand by'
Inferences
The company explicitly invokes Article 29(3) logic—limiting some rights to protect other fundamental rights
The implementation is over-inclusive (all Russian users) rather than narrowly tailored to legitimate protective aim
Acknowledges that individual users may not support government actions ('we sympathize that this war may not affect your own views'), recognizing individual dignity even while applying uniform policy.
FW Ratio: 50%
Observable Facts
Email states 'we sympathize that this war may not affect your own views or opinion on the matter'
Despite acknowledging individual difference, policy applies uniform service termination
Inferences
The sympathy statement shows awareness of individual dignity but does not override categorical policy application
Editorial recognition of individual difference contradicts structural implementation without exceptions
Policy framing attempts to justify discrimination by reference to government actions, but discrimination based on nationality remains incompatible with non-discrimination principle regardless of stated justification.
FW Ratio: 60%
Observable Facts
Email explicitly targets 'users registered in Russia' for service termination without individual assessment
Email blocks specific country-code domains uniformly: '.ru, .xn--p1ai (рф), .by, .xn--90ais (бел), and .su'
Email denies hosting, email, and domain services based solely on national registration location
Inferences
Nationality becomes the sole criterion for service eligibility, operationalizing discrimination at the categorical level
The uniform application to all users in specified countries demonstrates nationality as the operative legal distinction
Policy explicitly targets individuals based on nationality and national registration location, making nationality the primary criterion for service denial.
FW Ratio: 60%
Observable Facts
Email repeatedly identifies nationality as operative criterion: 'users registered in Russia' and country-code domains
Email blocks services for specific nationalities: '.ru, .xn--p1ai (рф), .by, .xn--90ais (бел), and .su'
Email applies blocking uniformly without individuated assessment based on registration alone
Inferences
Nationality is established as the sole criterion determining service eligibility for all affected users
Uniform application to all registered users demonstrates nationality as the operative legal distinction
While limitations principle is invoked, structural implementation uses categorical nationality-based discrimination rather than narrowly tailored measures.
Policy attributes government war crimes to all individual Russian users: 'your authoritarian government is committing human rights abuses', creating categorical responsibility without individuating factors.
build 1ad9551+j7zs · deployed 2026-03-02 09:09 UTC · evaluated 2026-03-02 11:31:12 UTC
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