American Companies and Iranian Websites
Hoder, an Iranian blogger based in Canada, reported yesterday about how American companies are shutting down Iranian websites – amongst them blogs.
The latest site to be shut down, with very short notice, is the Iranians Students‘ News Agency (ISNA) who’ve been given 48 hours by their host, The Planet, to remove their content before getting shot from the sky.
The idea is that, according to the US State Department, the Iranian government supports international terrorism. This is also why many US-based registrars, deny Iranians to register Internet domains.
This seems like an utterly stupid practice, if you ask me. There are many forces at work within the Iranian society in favour of changing the system. Cutting people off from the Internet, one of the most promising ways to encourage debate and free exchange of ideas we’ve seen in the history of mankind, can only be contraproductive.
So, all you bloggers in Iran – if you ever need a host in another country, consider Sweden. I promise you that I can have you set up (and probably even sponsored) in a matter of hours.