Using network namespaces does require root. User namespaces can give you something close enough to root to use network namespaces. But that only helps you if us

Using network namespaces does require root. User namespaces can give you something close enough to root to use network namespaces. But that only helps you if user namespaces are usable unprivileged, which they usually aren't, due to distro/sysadmin customization.