[inigyou]

Yes? ICANN is part of the US, and has been strong-armed by the US government into imposing restrictive rules on gTLDs even though they appear like they're global.

[rafram]

Any actual evidence that the US government has control over ICANN? I know they used to have an agreement that gave the US some oversight, but as far as I know that ended a decade ago.

[inigyou]

ICANN exists in the US, therefore the US government has control over it.

[rafram]

It's pretty difficult for the US government to tell a nonprofit what to do.

[inigyou]

It's actually extremely easy. They send a couple big guys with uniforms and badges and guns to your house, and they say, do this or else.

Why did you think Let's Encrypt suddenly blocked Iran? It isn't because their board members have the same ideological alignment.

[rafram]

That may be how things work in some countries, but not in the US, even under Trump.

Let’s Encrypt evidently didn’t mean to block all of Iran, only the Iranian government, which I assume is capable of getting its own certificates: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48465754

[inigyou]

Let's Encrypt evidently meant what they said, and the evidence is the fact that they said it. And they said they were sanctioning the whole country of Iran.