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Epik, a provider of critical internet services, was once a bastion of free speech. But after being rocked by scandals, the company is under new ownership that wants nothing to do with its previously loyal customers. Its future is uncertain, as is free speech on the open web.
What Epik does
A website’s domain name — like theblaze.com — is how you access or link to it. If a website loses a domain name, it becomes inaccessible to many and breaks existing links to that website.
Individuals and organizations operating websites lease those domain names from registrars. The best-known is GoDaddy, with Epik being another example.
However, the registrars are merely commercial front doors for a nonprofit organization called the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers.
It’s similar to the arrangement between auto manufacturers and dealers. You don’t drive to the Ford factory or a Ford corporate office if you want a Ford Mustang. Instead, you visit a dealer that sells Ford vehicles. They buy the cars from the manufacturer, and you then buy the car from the dealer. Except in this case, you can’t actually buy the car, only lease it.
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