6 months in and Freenom is still in limbo; any ideas how to regain my .tk domain?
About 15 years ago, I registered a free .tk domain that I used for a hobby website. Over time, I was forced by Freenom, the main registrar of .tk domains, to pay for the domain because it was receiving "too much traffic" and was classified as a premium domain. Since it was just 12 bucks a year, I didn't really mind.
Now, flash forward to 2024. My domain was up for renewal again in March. The renewal failed because they claimed they didn't have my credit card on file (which doesn’t explain how they were able to renew it all the previous years, but okay). While my domain was still in quarantine status, I reached out to support. They said they would be able to restore it for me if I paid the reactivation fee of 25 euros, which I did. They replied, claiming the domain was reinstated, but it wasn’t… and that was the last thing I ever heard from them. I know they lost the court case against Facebook, but I didn’t expect them to exit like this, leaving clients hanging.
I heard some people were able to retrieve their .tk domains by emailing them directly instead of via a ticket, but no one responds. Others report they were able to retrieve them via Gandi, but for .tk they’re asking for a $280 registration fee due to paperwork, which is a bit steep.
Does anyone have any other ideas or “connections” to regain my .tk domain? I have the auth code...
PS. Yes, I could register a different TLD, but that’s not the point here 
Comments
Maybe go visit Tokelau?
I don't know I think you might be SOL. I thought the TLD was dead after Freenom lost their law suit.
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Hey so I'm not sure if I can address this exact issue but I may be of some help. I do have a .tk domain that was paid that I was able to pay for for another year but I was also concerned about it being in limbo. My understanding is that Gandhi whatever doesn't matter because the TLD registrar itself is in limbo.
I reached out to ICANN who was super unhelpful about but linked here:
https://www.iana.org/domains/root/db/tk.html
One of these contacts is the CEO of Freenom but one of them is Tokelau telecom. It was a reach but I did email them to see if I could get any information about the future of the .tk TLD.
They actually responded to me and the response was "New CEO Teletok will start in office from 01 October. I will bridge you over from then, and he will handle things for you. "
I'll write here if I get an update and you are free to also reach out to the Tokelau telecom contact yourself.
Honestly I'm kind of pissed off ICANN washed their hands of this, there should be information and guidelines up there vs just like "lol here is the contact data including a CEO of a company that went under"
Sounds like he will have alot of work ahead of him on the 1st.
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What are they supposed to do? It's ccTLD not gTLD. You wouldn't contact Amazon to ask if they can help with an eBay sale dispute, right?
I don't understand. Let's say i am a ccTLD or sponsored TLD and i rent (because every domain and subdomain is actually rented) from IANA let's say hypothetically .potatoe the sponsored TLD.
I can have wildcard *.potatoe DNS record and point all subdomains to my host, because i own all of the potassium in the world and all other are inferior potassium. How is this offensive to third party companies, like Facebook aka Meta in this case?
Yes i can have facebook.potatoe i can have windows.potatoe and google.potatoe as well.
Just because they have a lot of money, strongest lawyers and political connections, doesn't mean they own the internet.
PS: And IANA can choose to delegate or not to delegate to me and that's it, all the rest is my jurisdiction.
Freenom's CEO is Dutch and their offices are/were in Amsterdam, so that might a last resort.
Awesome, thanks for the lead! I've just dropped him a message. Fingers crossed.
LinuxFreek.com
@lowendmeow Unfortunately I never received a reply to my email sent to Teletok and Tealofi, nor Joost. What is the status of your domain?
LinuxFreek.com
My domain is still OK because I was able to pay for it before all this stuff went down, but I am wanting to have an option before it is up for renewal next year because I don't know where that money is going to. i heard some lucky people were able to get customer support to add 10 years for free but that didn't happen in my case.
I also have not heard back from anyone, I guess I could try pinging the guy because he responded to me in the first place.
It makes one laugh at their reply where they tell you that the domain was not renewed because they did not have the card details registered when for years this was the case, it almost seems as if they did it on purpose to make you pay the restoration fee.
Unfortunately, you just have to wait for their reply if it ever comes, or transfer the domain to another accredited registrar.
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