Hey, everyone! Hope you're all enjoying 2024. I started my year by abandoning the sinking ship that is Epik, that embarrassing circus that calls itself a domain registrar.
Epik, my (former) domain registrar, recently changed owners. The new owners have taken it upon themselves to start censoring people, most notably a rather notorious website called Kiwi Farms.
Kiwi Farms is a forum dedicated to the description and discussion of what they refer to as "lolcows", Internet users with bizarre habits and sordid pasts. The site's content is crude, offensive, highly controversial, and also completely legal. Despite this, Kiwi Farms has found itself the victim of an exhaustive censorship campaign waged primarily by journalists and members of the so-called trans "community". Those scorned by Kiwi Farms have exploited every weak link in the site's infrastructure -- Basically every private company that gate-keeps the Internet has denied service to Kiwi Farms, with one noteworthy exception. Until recently, Epik uniquely stood alone in support of Kiwi Farms' right to exist on the Internet. Their justification being that, while the site's content was repulsive, Kiwi Farms hadn't done anything illegal. For their efforts, Epik found themselves under attack, even getting hacked by "Anonymous" (feds).
Epik's new owners are not governed by the same principles... And that statement isn't some slam-dunk diss from me. The rocket scientists running Epik's Twitter account blatantly said they don't care about free speech. They then proceeded to throw a temper tantrum, launching into schizophrenic tirades about "woke liberals" and how Kiwi Farms is apparently hosting child porn; it isn't, but that didn't deter Epik. This kind of behavior is absolutely unacceptable for a company that holds the power to control information flow on the Internet.
Now, I've never used Kiwi Farms, and I don't think I'll be starting any time soon, but I agree with a sentiment expressed by the site's owner, Josh Moon. Paraphrasing: “If my stupid little meme site can't stay on the Internet, despite being totally legal, what hope would genuine political dissidents have?”
At any rate, I have no interest in giving Epik any more of my business. I've never publicly endorsed them, but I have recommended them in private to my friends. If you're still using Epik, get out now while you still can!
Special thanks to Blackmore for bringing this to my attention.
In other news, I've begun streaming again on my YouTube channel. Despite some shakiness at the start, it's proven to be really fun. I also have an article currently in the works and no clue when it will get done. I look forward to getting to share it with you all soon!