Domain fronting and freedom of expression linked
In Blocking the On-Ramp to the Free Internet, authors Peter Micek and Nathan White, of Access Now explain how ‘Google and Amazon have made a small technical change that is making it harder for people in repressive countries to go online’. They point out the importance of domain fronting, which can hide the final online destination by using communication routes through an established (and less likely to be blocked) company like Google or Amazon. However, according to Micek and White, these companies are now retreating from their previously protective stance, which followed the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, and the Global Network Initiative. Amazon announced the change as ‘enhanced domain protections to Amazon CloudFront‘.
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