Unfortunately they went along with it initially but at least they came to their senses in the end: https://github.com/AdguardTeam/AdguardFilters/issues/216586

Yeah, their CTO accepting and repeating the complaint at face value, in less than 10 words to justify the censorship, is not a good look

https://github.com/AdguardTeam/AdguardFilters/issues/216586#...

I tried not to share too much details while we were still in process of figuring out the details.

The legal advice we got was basically “block asap or risk jail time”. Moreover, the risk would still be there even if the complainant is shady or hiding their identity.

So it took us some time to do the digging and make sure that illegal content was removed which was the prerequisite to unblocking.

The digging is not finished btw, we’ll later post a proper analysis of our reaction and the results of the research.

I think that is an unreasonable expectation given the advice they received from their lawyer

Maybe it would have been virtuous to fight it tooth-and-nail from the start, but I don't think it was wrong to comply while investigating further

This is why it’s better to use AdGuard only for its DNS blocking capability and not for DNS resolving - use a real resolver like unbound https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unbound_(DNS_server)

I would advise against using unbound on the client side as this way all your DNS queries will be unencrypted and visible to your ISP. Besides that, the DNS responses can be modified, this kind of censorship is very popular and used in many countries.

IMO it is safer to use a big popular DNS recursor (google, cloudflare, adguard, quad9, etc), use DoT/DoH/DoQ and maybe add some additional filtering on top of it.

Thanks for the context - it changes the light of the parent article.

Their DNS is great. Removing websites without a good reason would quickly ruin everything for them.

Their pihole alternative is great too. Single go binary. Fantastic software.

Is it open source?

It is - GPLv3

https://github.com/AdguardTeam/AdGuardHome/blob/master/LICEN...

Oh yeah

I'm not well-versed in this: is AdGuard roughly equivalent to Pi-hole?

They do run a public DNS server that is equivalent to a Pihole.

It's worth trying on devices where you can't install ad blocking software, but can change the TCP/IP settings.

You can also install AdGuard home as a home-assistant add-on, and then configure your router to hand that IP out as the network DNS server -- so all of your network traffic is ad blocking as soon as it hits your wifi. (like a pihole).

It's pretty slick, highly recommend. (Also super useful to see what devices are reaching out to where and how frequently, custom block lists, custom local DNS entries, etc).

Their self-hosted product (AdGuard Home) is. ;)

yes, and it will happily run on a reasonable OpenWRT system such as a GL.iNet Flint 2.

As a satisfied customer, I just recommended their adblockimg DNS on here a few days ago but am happy to do it again. If you really don't want to install anything, at least adblock at the DNS level. https://adguard-dns.io/en/welcome.html

How would they compare to NextDNS?

I use their app on Android and it blocks ads system wide

I would recommend it

best thing is that it works even without their app, just change dns in settings

Yes kudo. The pressure could simply be inferred as due to the arrogant trend one can observe, the editing of history.

> doing the extra digging instead of just going along with the claim.

That's the intention of intermediary liability laws - to make meritless censorship be the easy, no-risk way out. To deputize corporations to act as police under a guilty-until-proven-innocent framework.

yes, major respect to adguard.