Gandi and the .CN
By Ryan on Thursday 22 May 2008, 11:37 - Permalink
Or the tribulations of Gandi in China...
To manage or not to manage this ccTLD?
In this time of consternation of the attitude of the Chinese leaders notably with regards to individual freedom, we have also been faced with a decision concerning this ccTLD: do we support it or boycott it...
Why?
Let's say that we are not Olympic athletes (even though some of us do remarkable things^^), and that this is not the only way to support Tibet.
To truly understand, it is necessary to refer to the special conditions imposed upon this ccTLD by the Chinese government, which are (for the least)...particular. I'd like to bring your attention to the first articles, accompanied by a magnificent description.
I will let you reach your own conclusions and express them (democracy, even flouted every day, gives us at least this possibility), though I will nonetheless explain why we have finally decided to manage this ccTLD:
For more information on this ccTLD, visit the .cn description page.
In this time of consternation of the attitude of the Chinese leaders notably with regards to individual freedom, we have also been faced with a decision concerning this ccTLD: do we support it or boycott it...
Why?
Let's say that we are not Olympic athletes (even though some of us do remarkable things^^), and that this is not the only way to support Tibet.
To truly understand, it is necessary to refer to the special conditions imposed upon this ccTLD by the Chinese government, which are (for the least)...particular. I'd like to bring your attention to the first articles, accompanied by a magnificent description.
I will let you reach your own conclusions and express them (democracy, even flouted every day, gives us at least this possibility), though I will nonetheless explain why we have finally decided to manage this ccTLD:
- many of our customers have been requesting it,
- we believe that we must be open and try to act 'from the inside',
- we cannot ignore such an ancient and large country
For more information on this ccTLD, visit the .cn description page.
Comments
Thank you so much for this clear and insightful blah-blah. Next thing you know, we'll be finaly getting a clear statement as to why Gandi sells .fr and .us domain names...
Hello jc,
Gandi sets itself apart in that not only are we interested in selling products and services to help people express themselves on the web, but we are committed to doing so in an ethical way. Because of this, we need to be sure that any new service that we provide strengthens our core values, rather than dilute them.
Imagine, for example, that there is a political primary race being held on in which there is a candidate whose message is based on promoting the color green (why not
). Then, one day she finds out that her senior adviser was once head of the "Anti-Green" party. Well, you can see where this is going...
We have therefore felt it necessary to explain why Gandi (whose reputation is built on not only high-quality services, but also the active promotion of free-speech and human rights) would take the decision to sell domain names of an extension that in itself is representative of a market whose leaders do not share this view of the world.
France (.fr) and the United States of America (.us) are two countries that do not need any introduction or apology; our two countries have a shared history of democracy, free speech, and the promotion of human rights around the world... and this, for roughly 300 years!
These are the values of Gandi, and we will continue to fight for this noble cause, despite the cynics and trolls who, briefly, loose sight of what matters.
Hi Ryan,
I don't think the world is divided between "good" and "bad" countries, nor that France and USA are exemplary countries (which is perhaps what jc meant). In every country of the world there are good and bad things happening. I like your core values and besides the advertised redundant service that is why I would prefer to deal with you to host my services, but I can not stand opposition of countries pretending that some are good (when if you carefully look at it they are far from being it) and other ones are bad (while if you don't give them any chance they won't "improve" the way you want it).