Namecheap and the EFF are apparently interlinked, and not in a good way. That’s the focus of an article posted on CircleID, “the world’s leading platform for Internet developments.”
The article expands on the Facebook lawsuit filed against Namecheap, to uncover the registrants of domains serving malware or pretending to offer services endorsed by the social media company.
In doing so, the article shares SpamHaus data, which show that 25% of domains used in criminal botnets are registered through Namecheap, giving the domain registrar the title of the registrar with the most abused domains for a 3rd year in a row.
So where does the EFF come in? This is where it gets creative.
Botnets – Photo by Taskin Ashiq on Unsplash
The Electronic Frontier Foundation is trying to stop the sale of .ORG to Ethos Capital, but the same organization is trying to overturn a federal law aimed to stop sex traffickers from using websites such as Backpage to advertise and conduct business.
The article goes on to establish the link between Namecheap and the EFF:
“In the last decade, Namecheap has contributed $390,000 to EFF to fight against restrictions that could prevent bad actors from using the Internet to engage in sex trafficking, conduct scams, and spread malware that can lead to identity theft, financial loss and ransomware. It’s hard not to connect the dots. Namecheap pays EFF to work to block Internet safety legislation and initiatives; Namecheap makes money by being the go-to domain company for bad actors who create domain names that can be used for scams and malware and other potential illicit activity.”
Opinions may differ, however, because as we all know “correlation does not imply causation.”
Just because Namecheap makes sizable donations to the EFF, does not mean that it is corrupt or that it supports crime. There is a due process in uncovering criminals, and surely Facebook is going to get a formal response via the court system.
Read the full article, titled “Namecheap, EFF and the Dangerous Internet Wild West.”
CircleID is biased. Just look at it’s sponsors:
Cybersesurity: Verisign
Domain Names: Verisign
New TLDs: Afilias
DNS Security: Afilias
Not really a trustworthy news source and totally biased for those who want the registries to be monopolisits without borders…. Why doesn’t CircleID open up it’s books and talk about how it censors articles and plays favorites. Scummy website IMO.
kip – The writers are independently producing articles. You can say a writer’s angle might be influenced by personal bias or opinions, but CircleID offers a wide range of opinions. It has also hosted articles against the .com price increase, e.g. http://www.circleid.com/posts/20200306_report_and_analysis_of_public_comments_submitted_to_icann_part_i