📰 New article from TorrentFreak
‘Tonga’ Suspends Popular Pirate Site Domains Following Indian Court Order
https://torrentfreak.com/tonga-suspends-popular-pirate-site-domains-following-indian-court-order/
Remember when the .to domain was the ultimate pirate safe haven? Well, the “safe” part just got a lot less safe.
Thanks to a broad blocking order from India’s High Court, the Kingdom of Tonga has suddenly stopped playing hardball. Major torrent sites like S.to and BS.to, which had remained online for years despite foreign legal pressure, were abruptly placed on “clientHold.” This ICANN status code effectively suspends the domains, signaling that the new management is actually listening to court orders.
Why the change? It’s all about infrastructure. The old US-based operator, Tonic Domains, lacked the technical “suspension button.” That’s because the backend was recently handed over to Tucows, a Canadian company, with the Tongan government now listed as the official registrar. Suddenly, compliance isn’t just a request—it’s technically possible.
Rightsholders like Disney and Netflix had been begging for this. While site operators argue the Indian court has no jurisdiction over German websites, the reality is stark: if you can’t enforce a hold, you’re just waiting for the next amendment to the court order. The era of .to as a lawless zone is officially over.