6 ms·

Is this an abuse of the ServerHold status? Was this the same mechanism used to delist a Gaza video archive recently? > This status code is set by your domain's

by hliyan 9mo ago

Is this an abuse of the ServerHold status? Was this the same mechanism used to delist a Gaza video archive recently? > This status code is set by your domain's Registry Operator. Your domain is not activated in the DNS. > If you provided delegation information (name servers), this status may indicate an issue with your domain that needs resolution. If so, you should contact your registrar to request more information. If your domain does not have any issues, but you need it to resolve in the DNS, you must first contact your registrar in order to provide the necessary delegation information. https://www.icann.org/resources/pages/epp-status-codes-2014-06-16-en#serverHold https://www.icann.org/resources/pages/epp-status-codes-2014-...

ishanjain28 9mo ago
Yes. Genocide.live is under clientHold status by namecheap and they are trying to transfer it out.
- TitaRusell 9mo ago
  The genocide will not be televised! (A judge in the Netherlands settled the question if there is a genocide going on and since then we've been on Israels naughty list lol)
- jeroenhd 9mo ago
  I don't know much about the story or that site, but I can just open it from my end? Whois information also doesn't seem to show any special status.
  - GordonS 9mo ago
    After publicly shaming NameCheap on Twitter, NameCheap backed down a little. They've still de-platformed genocide.live, but released the DNS name so the owner could transfer it out. IIRC, they are using a "free speech" provider in Estonia now.
    - throw-the-towel 9mo ago
      Hey, that's the same Namecheap that banned Russian citizens for being Russian in 2022? Nice to hear they're still principled.
- catlikesshrimp 9mo ago
  They transfered to a new registrar in 2024. Problem solved for now https://www.whois.com/whois/genocide.live https://www.whois.com/whois/genocide.live (btw, that is an excellent website I didn't know about)
MallocVoidstar 9mo ago
I'm pretty sure serverHold being applied to domains targeted by court orders is normal. It also has all of the xProhibited statuses which ICANN notes are "usually enacted during legal disputes".
koheripbal 9mo ago
To add a little context, this suspension comes immediately after Anna's Archive publicly implicated themselves in the Spotify scraping "hack" in which they downloaded nearly the entire content library of Spotify and was preparing to release it publicly (~300TB worth) via torrent. They published a blog post outlining their plans.
- pnathan 9mo ago
  Did the operators _want_ to poke the well connected & well funded bear with a historical anger problem?
  - MarsIronPI 9mo ago
    No, but they weren't not going to, given that their mission is to archive all cultural content, by hook or by crook.
    - mmooss 9mo ago
      Archiving it and publishing it are different things. More importantly, they may sabotage their mission: If Spotify shuts them down, their exiting archives and especially future archives may be effectively lost.
      - lukan 9mo ago
        Fortunately, Spotify does not have that power. Annas Archive is not based in US or EU jurisdictions. They can make access for normal people a bit harder, but not shut it down. (Edited for clarity)
        aleph_minus_one 9mo ago
        > Fortunately, Spotify does not have that power. They are not based in US or EU jurisdictions. Perhaps I misunderstood something, but according to my understanding 1. Spotify is registered in Luxembourg and has its operational headquarter in Sweden (Stockholm). Both are EU countries. 2. I guess it won't be Spotify that sues, but the individual music labels (very likely united).
pbiggar 9mo ago
The Gaza video archive is https://genocide.live https://genocide.live, and it was Namecheap that took it down. https://x.com/receipts_lol/status/2006732606164152651 https://x.com/receipts_lol/status/2006732606164152651
- immibis 9mo ago
  [flagged]
  - pbiggar 9mo ago
    Still visible for me. Try https://nitter.space/receipts_lol/status/2006732606164152651 https://nitter.space/receipts_lol/status/2006732606164152651
  - pbiggar 9mo ago
    Article about it if that's better https://neosmart.net/blog/namecheap-com-revokes-domain-hosting-video-archives-of-israeli-war-crimes/ https://neosmart.net/blog/namecheap-com-revokes-domain-hosti...
  - exe34 9mo ago
    Free speech absolutist!
    - ddingus 9mo ago
      That line will haunt Musk to the end of his days. That was a very sexy thing to say, but quite a different beast when it is time to walk the talk. Musk has buckled, talking the walk instead.
      - exe34 9mo ago
        he's a psychopath like the rest of them rich and powerful. he'll say anything that will get him more wealth and influence.
        9mo ago
NelsonMinar 9mo ago
The fascist website Stormfront lost their .org in 2017 with some very unclear procedural action, but I don't think it was a ServerHold. It was offline for quite awhile and I think genuinely hurt the site. Although it looks like it's back now?
- seawsurf 9mo ago
  I think this was genuinely due to the Norwegian Massacre. The guy who did it had an account on stormfront. The whole thing exploded and the owner had to explain that he was not in contact with the mass murderer. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2011_Norway_attacks https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2011_Norway_attacks
ComputerGuru 9mo ago
Full writeup of the Gaza video archive takedown, if you aren't up to date on it: https://neosmart.net/blog/namecheap-com-revokes-domain-hosting-video-archives-of-israeli-war-crimes/ https://neosmart.net/blog/namecheap-com-revokes-domain-hosti... In that case, it was the registrar (not the TLD owner) that put the domain under clientHold and clientTransferProhibited, etc (which disables DNS lookups). The Genocide.live site is now back up (just yesterday) after they raised a fuss on social media, and were able to get the domain unlocked to transfer it to Trustname (out of Estonia) as their new registrar. (The Namecheap founder/CEO Richard Kirkendall surprisingly came across as surprisingly unaware of how anything to do with domain name registries, TLDs, and DNS works on Twitter in an exchange where he thought the entity running the .live gTLD was the archive's new registrar [1], claimed the domain was unlocked for transfer when it was still on clientHold [2], and a raft of other silly mistakes.) [0]: https://neosmart.net/blog/namecheap-com-revokes-domain-hosting-video-archives-of-israeli-war-crimes/ https://neosmart.net/blog/namecheap-com-revokes-domain-hosti... [1]: https://x.com/namecheapceo123/status/2007139737379934559?s=20 https://x.com/namecheapceo123/status/2007139737379934559?s=2... [2]: https://x.com/namecheapceo123/status/2007228146060259365?s=20 https://x.com/namecheapceo123/status/2007228146060259365?s=2... yet https://x.com/receipts_lol/status/2007984691476156443?s=20 https://x.com/receipts_lol/status/2007984691476156443?s=20
silisili 9mo ago
Used to work for a registry. Registries do not just arbitrarily serverHold things they don't like. Even in blatant abuse cases, they'll reach out to the registrar to clientHold it or delete it instead. I suspect this came from a court order. The only time I remember serverHolding things were from court orders or other legal requests(FBI/DHS/etc). Though the latter would often just ask for the nameservers to be changed instead.
- omoikane 9mo ago
  I remember itch.io was put on serverHold by having someone claim there was "fraud and phishing": https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42363727 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42363727 But .org is managed differently from .io, so maybe a more formal legal action was taken.
- comex 9mo ago
  Not my experience. My personal .us domain was placed in serverHold in April 2025, after Godaddy Registry sent my registrar an email including the following: "If we do not receive a response and the abusive content remains active, the referred domain will be suspended (-ServerHold-) twelve (12) hours after this notification, to limit any potential damage." Yes, only 12 hours' notice. And this was in response to what looked like an automated scan, with a screenshot of a directory listing showing some files with (accurate) modification times in 2011. This would not have passed more than a quite cursory human review. And there is no chance that anyone was using the files, as they were at an unused path (which happened to be exposed via directory listings). (How do I know that the files haven't been infected without my knowledge? Because I checked, but also because I know why they were flagged as malicious. The files contain an exploit, and will try to exploit your browser if you open them. But the exploit only works on 2011-era iOS! The iOS version numbers are right there in the filenames! The files are not real malware, but part of a jailbreak, JailbreakMe, that installs software of your choice on your phone… if your phone is an iPhone from 2011. I continue to host the jailbreak on purpose, for the sake of a handful of people that still use these devices. I guess you can call it retrocomputing. This particular subset of files was unused though.)
  - 9mo ago
leoh 9mo ago
> Was this the same mechanism used to delist a Gaza video archive recently? The mechanism used to shut down a website whose videos were fake and that was funded by actual terrorists? I don’t think Anna’s Archive is in the same category, no.

by hliyan 9mo ago

ishanjain28 9mo ago

Yes. Genocide.live is under clientHold status by namecheap and they are trying to transfer it out.

TitaRusell 9mo ago
The genocide will not be televised! (A judge in the Netherlands settled the question if there is a genocide going on and since then we've been on Israels naughty list lol)
jeroenhd 9mo ago
I don't know much about the story or that site, but I can just open it from my end? Whois information also doesn't seem to show any special status.
- GordonS 9mo ago
  After publicly shaming NameCheap on Twitter, NameCheap backed down a little. They've still de-platformed genocide.live, but released the DNS name so the owner could transfer it out. IIRC, they are using a "free speech" provider in Estonia now.
  - throw-the-towel 9mo ago
    Hey, that's the same Namecheap that banned Russian citizens for being Russian in 2022? Nice to hear they're still principled.
catlikesshrimp 9mo ago
They transfered to a new registrar in 2024. Problem solved for now https://www.whois.com/whois/genocide.live https://www.whois.com/whois/genocide.live (btw, that is an excellent website I didn't know about)

MallocVoidstar 9mo ago

I'm pretty sure serverHold being applied to domains targeted by court orders is normal. It also has all of the xProhibited statuses which ICANN notes are "usually enacted during legal disputes".

koheripbal 9mo ago

To add a little context, this suspension comes immediately after Anna's Archive publicly implicated themselves in the Spotify scraping "hack" in which they downloaded nearly the entire content library of Spotify and was preparing to release it publicly (~300TB worth) via torrent. They published a blog post outlining their plans.

pnathan 9mo ago
Did the operators _want_ to poke the well connected & well funded bear with a historical anger problem?
- MarsIronPI 9mo ago
  No, but they weren't not going to, given that their mission is to archive all cultural content, by hook or by crook.
  - mmooss 9mo ago
    Archiving it and publishing it are different things. More importantly, they may sabotage their mission: If Spotify shuts them down, their exiting archives and especially future archives may be effectively lost.
    - lukan 9mo ago
      Fortunately, Spotify does not have that power. Annas Archive is not based in US or EU jurisdictions. They can make access for normal people a bit harder, but not shut it down. (Edited for clarity)
      - aleph_minus_one 9mo ago
        > Fortunately, Spotify does not have that power. They are not based in US or EU jurisdictions. Perhaps I misunderstood something, but according to my understanding 1. Spotify is registered in Luxembourg and has its operational headquarter in Sweden (Stockholm). Both are EU countries. 2. I guess it won't be Spotify that sues, but the individual music labels (very likely united).

pbiggar 9mo ago

The Gaza video archive is https://genocide.live https://genocide.live, and it was Namecheap that took it down. https://x.com/receipts_lol/status/2006732606164152651 https://x.com/receipts_lol/status/2006732606164152651

immibis 9mo ago
[flagged]
- pbiggar 9mo ago
  Still visible for me. Try https://nitter.space/receipts_lol/status/2006732606164152651 https://nitter.space/receipts_lol/status/2006732606164152651
- pbiggar 9mo ago
  Article about it if that's better https://neosmart.net/blog/namecheap-com-revokes-domain-hosting-video-archives-of-israeli-war-crimes/ https://neosmart.net/blog/namecheap-com-revokes-domain-hosti...
- exe34 9mo ago
  Free speech absolutist!
  - ddingus 9mo ago
    That line will haunt Musk to the end of his days. That was a very sexy thing to say, but quite a different beast when it is time to walk the talk. Musk has buckled, talking the walk instead.
    - exe34 9mo ago
      he's a psychopath like the rest of them rich and powerful. he'll say anything that will get him more wealth and influence.
      - 9mo ago

NelsonMinar 9mo ago

The fascist website Stormfront lost their .org in 2017 with some very unclear procedural action, but I don't think it was a ServerHold. It was offline for quite awhile and I think genuinely hurt the site. Although it looks like it's back now?

seawsurf 9mo ago
I think this was genuinely due to the Norwegian Massacre. The guy who did it had an account on stormfront. The whole thing exploded and the owner had to explain that he was not in contact with the mass murderer. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2011_Norway_attacks https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2011_Norway_attacks

ComputerGuru 9mo ago

Full writeup of the Gaza video archive takedown, if you aren't up to date on it: https://neosmart.net/blog/namecheap-com-revokes-domain-hosting-video-archives-of-israeli-war-crimes/ https://neosmart.net/blog/namecheap-com-revokes-domain-hosti... In that case, it was the registrar (not the TLD owner) that put the domain under clientHold and clientTransferProhibited, etc (which disables DNS lookups). The Genocide.live site is now back up (just yesterday) after they raised a fuss on social media, and were able to get the domain unlocked to transfer it to Trustname (out of Estonia) as their new registrar. (The Namecheap founder/CEO Richard Kirkendall surprisingly came across as surprisingly unaware of how anything to do with domain name registries, TLDs, and DNS works on Twitter in an exchange where he thought the entity running the .live gTLD was the archive's new registrar [1], claimed the domain was unlocked for transfer when it was still on clientHold [2], and a raft of other silly mistakes.) [0]: https://neosmart.net/blog/namecheap-com-revokes-domain-hosting-video-archives-of-israeli-war-crimes/ https://neosmart.net/blog/namecheap-com-revokes-domain-hosti... [1]: https://x.com/namecheapceo123/status/2007139737379934559?s=20 https://x.com/namecheapceo123/status/2007139737379934559?s=2... [2]: https://x.com/namecheapceo123/status/2007228146060259365?s=20 https://x.com/namecheapceo123/status/2007228146060259365?s=2... yet https://x.com/receipts_lol/status/2007984691476156443?s=20 https://x.com/receipts_lol/status/2007984691476156443?s=20

silisili 9mo ago

Used to work for a registry. Registries do not just arbitrarily serverHold things they don't like. Even in blatant abuse cases, they'll reach out to the registrar to clientHold it or delete it instead. I suspect this came from a court order. The only time I remember serverHolding things were from court orders or other legal requests(FBI/DHS/etc). Though the latter would often just ask for the nameservers to be changed instead.

omoikane 9mo ago
I remember itch.io was put on serverHold by having someone claim there was "fraud and phishing": https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42363727 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42363727 But .org is managed differently from .io, so maybe a more formal legal action was taken.
comex 9mo ago
Not my experience. My personal .us domain was placed in serverHold in April 2025, after Godaddy Registry sent my registrar an email including the following: "If we do not receive a response and the abusive content remains active, the referred domain will be suspended (-ServerHold-) twelve (12) hours after this notification, to limit any potential damage." Yes, only 12 hours' notice. And this was in response to what looked like an automated scan, with a screenshot of a directory listing showing some files with (accurate) modification times in 2011. This would not have passed more than a quite cursory human review. And there is no chance that anyone was using the files, as they were at an unused path (which happened to be exposed via directory listings). (How do I know that the files haven't been infected without my knowledge? Because I checked, but also because I know why they were flagged as malicious. The files contain an exploit, and will try to exploit your browser if you open them. But the exploit only works on 2011-era iOS! The iOS version numbers are right there in the filenames! The files are not real malware, but part of a jailbreak, JailbreakMe, that installs software of your choice on your phone… if your phone is an iPhone from 2011. I continue to host the jailbreak on purpose, for the sake of a handful of people that still use these devices. I guess you can call it retrocomputing. This particular subset of files was unused though.)
- 9mo ago

leoh 9mo ago

> Was this the same mechanism used to delist a Gaza video archive recently? The mechanism used to shut down a website whose videos were fake and that was funded by actual terrorists? I don’t think Anna’s Archive is in the same category, no.