Taliban Shuts Down 'queer.af' Domain, Breaking Mastodon Instance
(www.404media.co)
from thejevans@lemmy.ml to technology@lemmy.world on 12 Feb 2024 18:30
https://lemmy.ml/post/11820409
from thejevans@lemmy.ml to technology@lemmy.world on 12 Feb 2024 18:30
https://lemmy.ml/post/11820409
cross-posted from: lemmy.ml/post/11820406
Do not use 2 letter country TLDs!
threaded - newest
I have nothing to add other than that’s an amazing instance name lol
Lmao
I’m honestly surprised how long it took. As soon as I saw the server’s domain I thought, “that’s not going to go over well in Afghanistan.” I didn’t realize that the Taliban just hadn’t gotten around to reviewing their TLD yet.
That’s some perfect irony. A queer instance using the Afghanistan domain.
And this was probably inevitable.
The irony of this being crossposted from ML.
Oh I’m fully aware haha, and the article is on a CO site. At the time I made my account, lemmy.ml seemed to be the best option, even with the poor TLD choice.
Oh I'm not giving you grief, I just think it's funny.
🤌
Yeah but now it’s owned by the Taliban meaning the queer is coming from inside the house.
Gottem.
Always has been. Bacha bazi is still common in Afghanistan.
For what it's worth, I guess they saw this coming.
What’s wrong with 2 letter country TLDs?
.uk .de .us .nl etc all seem like okay candidates
They used .af because in modern english, “af” stands for “as fuck”
As in “queer. As fuck”, meaning VERY queer
The problem is who controls them. The government of each country can decide at any moment that they want to take control of their TLD and remove any sites that they don’t like. It’s just not good practice if you want your site to stick around.
Right. So how do you differentiate between the 2-letters ones and 3+? Each TLD can have domains requisitiioned by a government, even if its indirect through ICANN.
ICANN is certainly not perfect, but there is a difference between the automatic control that countries have over their ccTLD and the control they have through ICANN.
The US regularly seize domains, even those with foreign registrars. I don’t feel that any tld is immune from this. Sure there are some TLDs more at risk than others, like .af being in control of the Taliban, but I’d also say US controlled TLDs are not the least at risk.
Some interesting articles about this
securityweek.com/country-specific-web-domains-can…
en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_In_Our_Sites
www.wired.com/2012/03/feds-seize-foreign-sites/