diff --git a/code/common/db/src/main/java/nu/marginalia/db/DomainBlacklistImpl.java b/code/common/db/src/main/java/nu/marginalia/db/DomainBlacklistImpl.java
index f8aa8ee6..87be3942 100644
--- a/code/common/db/src/main/java/nu/marginalia/db/DomainBlacklistImpl.java
+++ b/code/common/db/src/main/java/nu/marginalia/db/DomainBlacklistImpl.java
@@ -16,7 +16,7 @@ public class DomainBlacklistImpl implements DomainBlacklist {
     private volatile TIntHashSet spamDomainSet = new TIntHashSet();
     private final HikariDataSource dataSource;
     private final Logger logger = LoggerFactory.getLogger(getClass());
-
+    private final boolean blacklistDisabled = Boolean.getBoolean("no-domain-blacklist");
     @Inject
     public DomainBlacklistImpl(HikariDataSource dataSource) {
         this.dataSource = dataSource;
@@ -27,6 +27,7 @@ public class DomainBlacklistImpl implements DomainBlacklist {
     }
 
     private void updateSpamList() {
+
         try {
             int oldSetSize = spamDomainSet.size();
 
@@ -46,6 +47,10 @@ public class DomainBlacklistImpl implements DomainBlacklist {
     public TIntHashSet getSpamDomains() {
         final TIntHashSet result = new TIntHashSet(1_000_000);
 
+        if (blacklistDisabled) {
+            return result;
+        }
+
         try (var connection = dataSource.getConnection()) {
             try (var stmt = connection.prepareStatement("SELECT EC_DOMAIN.ID FROM EC_DOMAIN INNER JOIN EC_DOMAIN_BLACKLIST ON EC_DOMAIN_BLACKLIST.URL_DOMAIN = EC_DOMAIN.DOMAIN_TOP")) {
                 stmt.setFetchSize(1000);
@@ -61,6 +66,7 @@ public class DomainBlacklistImpl implements DomainBlacklist {
 
     @Override
     public boolean isBlacklisted(int domainId) {
+
         if (spamDomainSet.contains(domainId)) {
             return true;
         }
diff --git a/code/features-crawl/crawl-blocklist/src/main/java/nu/marginalia/ip_blocklist/IpBlockList.java b/code/features-crawl/crawl-blocklist/src/main/java/nu/marginalia/ip_blocklist/IpBlockList.java
index cf81c75d..a339b1d4 100644
--- a/code/features-crawl/crawl-blocklist/src/main/java/nu/marginalia/ip_blocklist/IpBlockList.java
+++ b/code/features-crawl/crawl-blocklist/src/main/java/nu/marginalia/ip_blocklist/IpBlockList.java
@@ -22,11 +22,18 @@ public class IpBlockList {
     private final GeoIpBlocklist geoIpBlocklist;
     private final Logger logger = LoggerFactory.getLogger(getClass());
     private final List<SubnetUtils.SubnetInfo> badSubnets = new ArrayList<>();
+    private final boolean blocklistDisabled = Boolean.getBoolean("no-ip-blocklist");
 
     @Inject
     public IpBlockList(GeoIpBlocklist geoIpBlocklist) {
         this.geoIpBlocklist = geoIpBlocklist;
 
+        if (blocklistDisabled) {
+            logger.warn("IP blocklist disabled");
+            // no point loading the list here
+            return;
+        }
+
         var resource = Objects.requireNonNull(
                 ClassLoader.getSystemResourceAsStream("ip-banned-cidr.txt"),
                 "Could not load IP blacklist");
@@ -52,6 +59,9 @@ public class IpBlockList {
     final Predicate<String> numericPattern = Pattern.compile(".*\\d{4}.*").asMatchPredicate();
 
     public boolean isAllowed(EdgeDomain domain) {
+        if (blocklistDisabled)
+            return true;
+
         if (domain.domain.endsWith(".cn")) {
             logger.debug("Blocking {} on .cn-end", domain);
             return false;
@@ -64,12 +74,15 @@ public class IpBlockList {
         try {
             var hostAddress = InetAddressCache.getAddress(domain).getHostAddress();
             var subnet = badSubnets.stream().filter(sn -> sn.isInRange(hostAddress)).findFirst();
+
             if (subnet.isPresent()) {
                 logger.debug("Blocking {} on IP range: {}", domain, subnet.get());
                 return false;
             }
+
         } catch (Throwable t) {
-            return false;
+            // Host failed ot resolve, deal with crawling error upstream
+            // to avoid flagging this as a blocked domain
         }
 
         var geo = geoIpBlocklist.isAllowed(domain);