Yes it is. The level of “unpredictability” varies greatly. And it is obvious which governments pose a higher risk.
Comment on Welp that answers a lot of why all .ml are down
bionicjoey@lemmy.ca 1 year agoGovernments are unpredictable. It’s not the registrar’s job to mitigate that unpredictability to their customers.
marmo7ade@lemmy.world 1 year ago
Corkyskog@sh.itjust.works 1 year ago
Idk, I feel like we’re only saying this because it’s Mali… If it were .US or .CN people would be like “well, duh”
bionicjoey@lemmy.ca 1 year ago
Every country gets to decide how tight of a grip they have on their TLD. Some sell it for some extra income (like Tuvalu) while others hang onto it for government or domestic use only
Buddahriffic@lemmy.world 1 year ago
Yeah, and I’d say going with any of the ones that sell it or leave it free is a risk because you never know when their regime might change and the new one might want more of an official internet presence. Unless there’s a 2nd level domain it’s all under (like co.uk), you should assume they’ll want it back at some point. This could apply more to popular domains that some governments could see as free traffic if they reclaim them.
bionicjoey@lemmy.ca 1 year ago
Guess I should be worried about Lemmy.ca
bill@lemmy.world 1 year ago
Not really. When you pay for .us domain you have it for a certain number of years. If the US tried to suddenly yank those back and violate the outstanding contracts for x number of years, there would most likely be lawsuits and an injunction from a federal judge blocking the action until there are hearings, etc. It would be a whole thing. If you simply couldn’t renew your .us domain anymore, that’s something you would know ahead of time and could plan for. It wouldn’t just vanish one day.