Freenom may be an unfamiliar name, but the free .tk/.ga/.ml/.cf/.gq domains certainly aren’t. Freenom is the registry operator behind them, offering free domain registration that’s recommended all over the internet. Well — today, it’s in trouble.
Registering a free domain now shows this notice:
IMPORTANT NOTICE: Because of technical issues the Freenom application for new registrations is temporarily out-of-order.
Please accept our apologies for the inconvenience. We are working on a solution and hope to resume operations shortly.
Thank you for your understanding.Freenom’s whois service has also been broken for a long time. Is it really “technical issues”? How does a technical issue last this long? The real reason: Meta (Facebook) sued Freenom.
Meta (Facebook) sues Freenom
Because Freenom hands out free domain registrations, huge numbers of counterfeit sites, phishing sites and gray-industry links live on Freenom domains. Facebook had enough and sued Freenom in the United States. The filings:
- Original complaint: https://cdn.renfei.net/upload/2023/Freenom-Meta.pdf
- Translated complaint: https://cdn.renfei.net/upload/2023/Freenom-Meta-cn.pdf
It covers impersonation of Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, with screenshots of the infringing pages — which are already offline.
My take on Freenom
For free domains, plenty of people recommend their .tk/.ga/.ml/.cf/.gq. Even back then I said free is the most expensive kind of free — Freenom has a lot of sketchy moves. Plenty of people suddenly had their domains reclaimed by Freenom: the registration agreement states clearly that with a free domain you only have usage rights, while ownership belongs to Freenom. In other words, they can take your domain back at any time. Domains got reclaimed once a site got some traffic, or while still unused — all kinds of reasons.
So: if you’re just playing around, Freenom is fine. If you actually want to build something, forget it.
Bonus
Gabon’s National Agency for Digital Infrastructures and Frequencies (ANINF) announced that from June 7, 2023, it is taking back the .ga registry from Freenom, and free .ga domains registered through Freenom will be forcibly reclaimed. Next post: Gabon reclaiming .ga.