The internet has been like this forever. In the 90s I was banned from hotmail for having an inappropriate email address because my last name is Cummings. No recourse for some idiotic regex filter.

I guess the only solution is to self-host. I've even been migrating my dedicated server to a homelab I'm slowly building. But that's a very time-consuming option, has a high chance of breakage, and not even available for 99.5% of people. And most people don't wants to spend hours and hours of private time to babysit own email server, which is understandable. Finally, it's not free.

I wonder what would have to happen for people to become more digitally sovereign, but I doubt it'll ever happen. If anything, we're going in the other direction.

Ahh, it's called the Scunthorpe problem! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scunthorpe_problem

Indeed, I got my Hotmail suspended because of something not terribly different. Thank God in those days not every account insisted on 2fa through email

What happens if your last name is Cummings and your home address is in Penistone, South Yorkshire, England?

Or perhaps in the quaint fishing town of Dildo, Newfoundland.

Hi Richard

Clbuttic.

I know that feel, I'm Hugh Mongous.