There are certain events which happen at the backstage of the blogosphere, not where the readers of a blog would directly notice, but yet can have a serious impact on the performance of any blogger. The issues regarding hosting services are among these.
Since last week, Blue Host, the hosting service which is used for this very blog [and Kamangir as well], and the number one recommendation for WordPress hosting by WordPress itself, has adopted a policy of suspending its Iranian users. In some cases the bloggers have been given a short notice in order to back up their data and leave. This is despite Bluehost’s good reputation in the blogosphere.
The matter of fact is that many of these bloggers, including Arash Kamangir who blogs at kamangir.net, have no connection to the Iranian administration and have had to take use of a foreign hosting service in order to freely express their opinions.
The important factor is that Bluehost is not committing any illegal action. What is being done is exactly what article 13 in Bluehost Terms of Service mandates. The article does explicitly mention Iran among the sanctioned countries,
Sanctioned Countries presently include, among others, Balkans, Belarus, Burma, Cote d’Ivoire (Ivory Coast), Cuba, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Iran, Iraq, former Liberian Regime of Charles Taylor, North Korea, Sudan, Syria, and Zimbabwe…Each Sanctioned Country, all governmental, commercial, or other entities located therein, and all individuals located in any Sanctioned Country are hereby prohibited from registering or signing up with, subscribing to, or using any service of BlueHost.Com.
Therefore, we respectfully accept Bluehost’s right for implementing its Terms of Service. We want Bluehost to be safe and secure and will not commit any action which would undermine that. However, according to the current practice in some country, giving service to individuals and organizations which act in conflict with the official policies of the administration is illegal. This will result in the Iranian opposition bloggers having no way to go and to be forced to shut down. The actions of Bluehost, therefore, will put a burden on these bloggers and will add to the pressure currently maintained by the Iranian administration on the opposition bloggers.
The matter of fact is, with Bluehost leading, other hosting services will follow very soon.
We respectfully acknowledge the rights of Bluehost and do thank their administration for their high level of service. We do hope that Bluehost drops its policy and does not disrupt the current level of discussion on Bluehost-powered blogs.
The Persian Bloggers who use Bluehost are dispersed all over the world and produce content for people from Iran, Afghanistan, Tajikistan, and other countries. The action taken by Bluehost, while entirely legal, will harm the Persian blogosphere.
The problems I faced in the costly transferring of 1Fathi may lead to the saddest incident to take place for me: the permanent closure of 1Fathi.com. We are in desperate need for the help of you, our friends.
This was a translation of the post titled “Persian blogs on bluehost are about to get out of reach” by Mr. Arash Abadpour which was translated to English and re-published ( see his translation ). I would like to appreciate his help here, too
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