Post by @jwildeboer@social.wildeboer.net
The "OMG Apple and Google renamed Lake Ontario in their map apps" discussion is barking at the wrong tree, in my opinion. It's a childish presidential order from a bully. I mainly shrug. This is not a hill I care for and even less am willing to die on. Let's fight the cause, not the symptoms! #UnpopularOpinion I guess.
@jwildeboer Agreed. 47 and his ilk always resort to schoolyard insults when they don't get what they want.
What worries me far more is the future of DNS and domain names, which ultimately are under US control and with the Trump administration it is being used to force the deletion of domain names from DNS that the Trump administration doesn't like. See https://social.wildeboer.net/@jwildeboer/117200308433923512
Jan Wildeboer 😷
@jwildeboer@social.wildeboer.net
PIR, the Public Interest Registry ("Based in Reston, Virginia, Public Interest Registry is a nonprofit organization created by the Internet Society to manage the .ORG domain."), seems to have put autistici.org on status serverHold and that is why you cannot resolve their name anymore. This is what can happen to your .org domain name when the Trump administration decides to add you to the OFAC (Office of Foreign Assets Control) list.
@jwildeboer We used to have third party root servers. But with the advent of widespread HTTPS, that went away, because the CAB compliant CA has to use the true and only root.
I don’t remember the one I used before, many years ago. I remember they had a TLD for Tibet.
It would still be doable, but you’d need to have a directly trusted line to all top level registrars, so that you can keep your NS and DS posts updated without copying them from ICANN.
@b2c I apologise for being Dutch and will recreate the image with correct grammar if you share what it should read :)
I'm not really aware of any - this is new to me - but since I'm keenly fond of decentralization and self-hosting, I need to learn more about it.
@jwildeboer
Well, not since the China/Russia ITU power play that scared everyone enough to put IANA under ICANN/ISOC multistakeholder control instead of US Commerce Dept oversight. The "always has been" format kind of undermines itself here — DNS governance is actually *less* under single-government control than it was a decade ago, specifically because the threat of it going the other way forced the transition.
The real "always has been" is that naming infrastructure has always been political. It just used to be one government's politics.
@jwildeboer forgive my ignorance. Is that really the case for all domais? It doesn’t seem to affect Chinese domains for example
@vanzick @jwildeboer Country code top level domains are generally considered somehow part of the sovereign aspects of a country as opposed to the more generic top level domains.
That, however, leaves us wondering things like why .su (Soviet Union) still exists and why each state in the EU gets a ccTLD (while each state in the US does not.)
Then there is my own top level domain proposal designed to break many of ICANN's rules:
@karlauerbach @vanzick @jwildeboer theoretically the US could delete ".ir", '.cu". ".gl", or anybody else they didn't like this week, but that would be the end of the DNS system and the end of their control.
@ghouston @vanzick @jwildeboer Rather than deleting top level domains, it can be much more "fun" usurping their contents, perhaps by taking over some root servers.
By-the-way, people forget that of the 13 root server clusters, the US gov't operates something like four of those 13. That's enough to do some "interesting" stuff. I wrote a bit about that 20 years back...
"What Could You Do With Your Own Root Server?"
Jon Postel and the Root Server Incident (1998)
In 1998, Jon Postel redirected root DNS traffic to test IANA's authority — the controversial incident that shaped DNS governance and its political fallout.
https://www.wired.com/2012/10/joe-postel/
https://www.robotdomainsearch.com/learn/1-4-postel-incident/
@jwildeboer When I was on the board of directors of ICANN I testified (multiple times) before committees of the US Senate.
One time a Senator gave me a hard time, so I returned the favor.
At one point I told that senator that if I could get nine of my fellow board members to agree with me we could pass a de facto worldwide domain name vs trademark law (actually a contract provision) that would supersede and override anything that a mere US Senator, such as himself, could ever enact.
I would note that ICANN screwed over the original .web top level domain back around year 2000 and recently assigned it to Verisign.
It is true, however, that internet users need not use the ICANN suite of root DNS servers. The competitive root movement kinda died, but it is coming back via things like Google's 8.8.8.8, Cloudflare's 1.1.1.1 and Xfinitiies 75.75.75.75, as well as via things like DNS ove HTTP (DOH) or DNS over TLS (DOT) in browsers.
@jwildeboer don't forget the *brilliant* idea to centralise all TLS certs to Let's Encrypt. Absolutely *no* way this could backfire. None, sir.
The US gave up their control of the root zone. It's technically not under their control.
So at least for now as long as you're at a non-us registrar you should be fine (as long as you comply with local law wherever the registrar is based).
You know basically the wisdom of old "the server location doesn't matter, what does is where the company operating it is based".
@jwildeboer Google claims they use official government sources to get the names they show on maps (names of businesses are probably treated differently). I'd presume the process was automated.
@jwildeboer the surprising thing to me is that people are expecting Google and Apple to be ethically driven, I suppose.
It's strange discussion, actually. This is how maps works. Even on OpenStreetMap you'll see, that thay use name "Finland" and "Suomi" simultaneously and system will select right one depending on your locale and geoposition.
As for their political position Big Tech Companies did not oppose foreign governments, why they should oppose their home government?
@jwildeboer You’re right that this ridiculous order is from a man-child and a wannabe dictator, and it is only a symptom of a greater problem. But the symptoms need treatment too
@jwildeboer I agree completely with you that the whole thing is a petty waste of time and energy, prompted by pettiest of beasts. Like so many other things, it was meant to be a distraction from a losing war, failing economy, and the Epstein scandal — and it’s working. As soon as #idiot47 leaves office, we’ll restore Lake Ontario and the Gulf of Mexico and lots of other things.
However, I am one who takes the insult personally. I lived in the Great Lakes region for most of my adult life. Folks there, both Democrat and Republican are very protective of their bodies of water. They should have a say in anything that affects the status of the lakes. It should not be up to the whims of a lunatic dictator to decide by himself. That is why the furor is so loud, but you are right, we should be treating the disease, not the symptoms.