Readers wondering how the ongoing restrictions on freedom of speech might evolve in the future were given a cautionary example this week when the FBI clamped down on the Russian fact-checking website WarOnFakes.com.
The seizure was a demonstration of what is likely the ultimate American solution for silencing voices they don’t like: they simply steal the domain name from its rightful owners.
The closest thing to a ”crime” WarOnFakes had committed when the FBI acted was that the US government had placed the names of those running the site on a sanctions list of Russians they disapprove of, meaning that the next time these Russians attempt to pay the annual fee for the domain name (to the American company that administers it: VeriSign), the transaction would be criminal, as it violates the United States sanctions policy against the Russian Federation.
In other words, the FBI stole the domain name for a victimless, fictitious crime, in a government action that in itself creates multiple real victims (in addition to the editorial team at WarOnFakes, all of its readers).
The real reason for the FBI seizing the domain name is hinted at in the way the FBI chose to describe WarOnFakes’ activities in the court filing:
”Domains impersonating legitimate news entities… to covertly spread Russian government propaganda”.
WarOnFakes is not secretive and is open about the fact that it started operations on 24 February 2022, the same day the Russian Federation entered Ukraine to protect ethnic Russians who, after the CIA’s coup in the country in 2014, were persecuted by the new, Nazi-influenced regime.
A look at WarOnFakes’ Telegram channel, which is still open (thanks to Pavel Durov), confirms that it specializes in explaining and countering fake stories, targeting an international audience (in English), particularly addressing fake stories the Zelensky regime and the West use to attack, primarily, Ukrainian and Russian audiences.
A recent example is how earlier this week WarOnFakes successfully exposed an attempt by Ukraine’s unelected president, Voldemort Zelensky, to depict a military training facility struck by Russia as a regular civilian school.
What enables the FBI to hijack domain names of sites not based in the United States is how the Internet is administered, specifically, the rules governing the management of top-level domains.
Although the .com top-level domain is used worldwide and lacks nationality, it is owned by the United States, whose government ultimately decides who is allowed to operate a .com site.
Not the first time
When the FBI acted, shortly after WarOnFakes exposed Zelensky’s lie about Poltava earlier this week, it was not the first time the United States stole a domain name.
In the court filing, the FBI listed a further 31 domains they plan to shut down (and may already have). And in 2021, the FBI snatched PressTV.com from the Iranian state.
Before that theft, PressTV had become known for its fact-based television journalism with presenters fluent in American English.
The site has since been accessible at PressTV.ir.
Sources
- PressTV.com: Seized by the FBI
- PressTV.ir: Still under the control of the legal owners
- Wikipedia: PressTV
- Waronfakes.com: Seized by the FBI
- Telegram: WarOnFakes
- Wikipedia: War on Fakes
- FBI: Case 2:24-mj-01395 Document 4 Filed 09/04/24