My thoughts exactly. You should not be choosing TLDs that are volatile to upsets like this. Stick with the tried and true .com or .net, or one of the new TLDs that are not bound to a nation (unless you can comply with the stipulations) or particular type of organization.

Dang I hope lemm.ee is safe. Hopefully Estonia doesn’t decide the same.

This is terrible news to me, as an OCaml’eer.

There goes all my potential cool project domains … 😭

Well, and it's not like this should take anyone by surprise, it's been 10 years coming. Unless Mali was telling people not to worry and then did an about face? I haven't seen anything to indicate that.

For anyone that wants to learn more about internet domains, the MKBHD Waveform podcast has an awesome episode about this topic. It’s a super interesting listen where they talk about how the internet works and one of the organizations behind it (ICANN).

ICANN and the 7 Keys to the Internet

Apple Music

Spotify

The fact that people were registering .ml domains for projects like this is mindboggling. There are many TLDs to pick from without infringing on the terms of use of a country-specific one.

Quoted for emphasis.