Freenom (OpenTLD)

2024: Closure of domain business following $500 million Meta lawsuit

In March 2024, it became known that the Dutch company Freenom, also known as OpenTLD, is finally leaving the domain business. The news of this first appeared a month ago, and now it finds significant confirmation. Over the years, the company has run an extremely successful business, giving away domain names for free in several national domain zones it manages. The secret of success was that domains were not deleted, even if they were blocked due to illegal use or the owners did not extend their registration. On the parking pages of such domain names, advertising links were posted, which brought the company a solid income - taking into account the fact that the account of these domains went to millions.

But Freenom's golden age came to an end when the fight against the illegal use of domain names became a matter of honor for large companies and national governments. Almost all countries that had previously entrusted it with managing their national domain zones refused Freenom's services. And the knockout blow was a lawsuit from Meta (recognized as an extremist organization in the Russian Federation). She demanded to pay her $500 million for 5,000 domain names registered in domain zones managed by Freenom and violating the rights of Meta brands.

The case did not come to a court decision: Freenom entered into a settlement agreement with Meta, pledging to pay the latter an unnamed amount of compensation and leave the domain business. The issue of payment, of course, is confidential, but leaving the business may well be confirmed from independent sources. Thus, the Domain Incite resource, referring to data from the Netcraft service, reports that at least 12.6 million domain names in the national domains of Tokelau.TK, Central African Republic.CF and Equatorial Guinea.GQ have stopped responding to requests. These national domain zones were managed by Freenom, and the names registered in them accounted for 98.7% of all domains that responded to requests under the control of the registry a month earlier.

2017: The launch of the anonymous public DNS service Freenom World in Russia

In June 2017, Freenom announced the launch of Freenom World in Russia, an anonymous public DNS service.

Each time you visit the site or send an email, all network devices send DNS requests. Devices or networks can be configured to use Freenom World servers with the following IP addresses: 80.80.80.80 and 80.80.81.81.

Freenom operates a global network of AnyCast DNS servers that are located around the world. AnyCast technology allows Freenom to use uniform IP addresses anywhere (80.80.80.80 and 80.80.81.81). Unlike other DNS services and large ad networks, Freenom does not store IP addresses in its log files, which are maintained only for statistical purposes and exclude any information about IP.

Internet service providers and ad networks can use DNS queries to track preferences by inserting contextual ads, or to reduce connection speeds. When using Freenom World, it is guaranteed that no information about the IP address will be saved, and site visits will not be used to optimize ad impressions.

In the past, public DNS converters have been used by cybercriminals as a source or tool for DNS amplification attacks or DDoS. Serving more than 30 million registered domain names, Freenom has extensive experience in repelling such attacks.