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domain hosting companies who will let anyone censor any website one-sidedly

maurice frank | 01.10.2005 18:01 | Culture | Globalisation | Repression | World

How universal among domain hosting companies, is the position that Vision Internet has taken, saying that websites should be open to attack from any malicious complainant without the hoster having to look at both sides of the case?

and that includes when looking at taking over a site's domain hosting. The following, from Vision Internet, is a frontal attack on the right to defend yourself when speaking out on any subject. It shows how as many companies as take this position have manoeuvred the internet to lie under their corporate control and at their mercy. They want to allow any malicious complainer to have the power, on say-so, to have any website's content censored or cause it difficulty in getting rehosted. This agenda has been set in place stealthily. It can be used politically to suppress anything in any domain-hosted website.

I won't name the other company involved because their response to the threatened website's legal defence of its content, and its right to be made, is still awaited.

My answer to Vision Internet makes the case that its position is illegal. It should be used upon all companies who take the same position.

> At 16:10 30/09/2005, I wrote:
>
> >Can you host a site that an IT-savvy friend wrote
> for me in a way
> >that I can amend the content at any time using
> html? It also
> >includes an info@domain email link that's just
> directed to my normal email.
> >The site already exists: there is a problem with
> the present
> >domain-host responding too high-handedly to a
> complaint and issuing
> >a too-casual ultimatum that accepts the
> complainant's word on trust
> >instead of even asking to hear our side of it.
>
Vision Internet's answer:

> I'm sorry, but we wouldn't really be interested in
> hosting a site
> which is likely to receive complaints. Whatever
> problem you have with
> your existing host is likely to also be a problem
> with ANY UK based
> web hosting provider. Unfortunately in the UK, there
> was a legal case
> several years ago against a major ISP regarding
> content on a
> newsgroup. The ISP ignored the complaint with very
> costly
> consequences. This has set a precedent for all UK
> based hosting
> providers and the way they deal with complaints.
>
> I would suggest that you either try to resolve your
> issues with your
> current provider or alternatively, find hosting in a
> different
> country other than the UK where there may be
> different laws and
> procedures for dealing with such matters.
>
my answer:

Because you wrote the above without taking any account of whether a complaint against a site has any foundation, you have 100% zero case to prevent me calling you a bad company on the evidence of it. I don't mean on the site, I mean in points of social or professional contact. It will not be a defamation of you because it is factually supported. Unless automatically and not even discretionarily, the only position you ever take towards complaints against websites is to scrutinise 2-sidedly whether the complaint has any basis and not take a position against likelihoods of unfounded complaints, then you are a self-admitted party to helping any malicious fraudster (as the person causing my problem is) to censor any website they like at whim. That is unconstitutional because it does not uphold the right of any accused person - or website - to give a defence case. Where the website's subject is medical, as it is in this case, it means your position is a blank cheque for medical falsification and concealment.

maurice frank

Comments

Hide the following 5 comments

Concerning

02.10.2005 02:17

...but it's hard to see what sort of complaint could be lodged against a legitimate medical website... are you able to provide any mor details as to the content of your site and the nature of the complaint?

P


not an objection

02.10.2005 09:47

To P -

Your comment is tantamount to saying that 'you're perfectly safe if you've got nothing to hide' which is precisely the state's argument on surveillance and indeed censorship...

laura


Ach away

02.10.2005 20:36

To Laura

And your response is tantamount to saying that free speech should have absolutely no restrictions. I therefore assume that if I libel you on this site or, say, a published piece in the media then you will neither make a complaint to the PCC or sue? Likewise if I make sexist, racist, or homophobic comments? Even if its in attempt to stir up hate crime?

Boab


try using tor if the content is likely to cause you problems.

03.10.2005 08:14

It may be that you find the following interesting. It is a little more complex than a point and click but if you are expecting a reasonably dedicated readership of you site then it shouldnt be too hard for people to get connected:


 http://tor.eff.org/doc/tor-hidden-service.html

bob


answer to above

04.10.2005 11:59

In fact the complaint was by a group that claims to be a support and advocacy group but that is run very authoritarianly and keeps banning and purging its members at the drop of a hat. It has cuased a lot of widespread hurt. The complaint's purpose is to suppress that from being told by the folk who have experienced it. So it is a consumer scandal if the gagging succeeds. Closing the site would make the domain hosting company directly party to stalking and medical deception, and I have told them so, but all they have done in reply is repeat their short-notice threats.

maurice frank