posted
Fahim works as a sysadmin for an American domain hosting company, and he commented this morning that the Department of Homeland Security has issued court orders ordering domain hosts to shut down websites for all domains belonging to Iranians.
This is not about content. This is about no Iranians.
It's also possible, given that, that if you're from any other country and the US doesn't like your country, that your site could be shut down with no notice.
posted
I wonder why? Why Iran and not some of these other countries we're argumentative with?
(What is a domain hosting company? Is it a domain registry, or a web hosting company?)
The whole Department of Homeland Security makes me nervous ... and disappointed in my government, and angry, from time to time.
Posts: 1522 | Registered: Nov 2005
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posted
Fahim hasn't seen the court order, so this is his impression thus far.
He's commented that if the billing address as provided is from Iran, they're declined service. But if the billing address is in some other country, even if the content is Iranian, they're not turned down.
Interesting.
Possibly related, although I don't know how, I found this.
quote:Iran endorses its own blogging revolution Iran endorses its own blogging revolution
Hossein Saffar-Harandi, the most fundamentalist minister of culture and Islamic guidance Iran has ever had, has not only publicly endorsed blogs, but also announced plans for including them, as well as websites, within the purview of a new government office that used to oversee only the press, writes Hossein Derakshan.
Given Iran's strict new policies against cultural products that promote "western" ideas such as feminism, liberalism, nihilism and humanism, the recent endorsement of blogs seems contradictory. The flourishing of blogs, estimated at more than 700,000 worldwide, has created a new space for self-expression on political and social matters.
In a speech during the closing ceremony of the first Festival for Islamic Revolutionary Blogs and Websites, co-sponsored by the ministry of culture, Mr Harandi celebrated the fact that everyone in Iran could now comment on current issues and "speak like a president".
"The hierarchical structure of the real world," he said, "prevents the truth being revealed, while in the virtual world this is not the case." He concluded that such opportunities for free expression would contribute to equality.
I don't know if they know what blogs are really like, or if they think they can control all of them, or if they'll let them have free reign. It could be interesting.
Posts: 8355 | Registered: Apr 2003
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Actually, I just ran across a quote today that seems it may apply here, in a roundabout way. (It's from The Silver Chair, talking about the headmistress of a British school.)
quote: ... the Head's friends saw that the Head was no use as a Head, so they got her made an Inspector to interfere with other Heads. And when they found she wasn't much good even at that, they got her into Parliament where she lived happily ever after.
Suddenly so many things make more sense....
Posts: 1522 | Registered: Nov 2005
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quote: I don't know if they know what blogs are really like, or if they think they can control all of them, or if they'll let them have free reign. It could be interesting.
Hmmm. I don't think I'd be blogging away too freely in Iran if my opinions didn't jibe with the party line. Sounds like posturing to me. Or a good way to keep an eye on dissidents.
Posts: 3149 | Registered: Jul 2005
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posted
Well, it's only natural that the wannabe despots in charge of Homeland Security wouldn't want the despots in Iran to be criticized by Iranian dissidents. Sets bad precedent for crackdowns in the US.
Posts: 8501 | Registered: Jul 2001
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