Hosts and services in the USA and their policy towards its members from Iran, Syria, Sudan and Iraq

by Rima (Syria)

In the past we have always dealt with rejections while shopping for hosting, since several of the sites we host are in all of the “sanctioned’ countries within the Middle East that some companies are banned from doing business with. Recently, Iranian blogger Arash Kamangir translated a post by another Iranian blogger concerning this as well, stating the following:

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.

We have never blamed the hosting companies themselves, many of their staff members have apologized for not being able to do business with us, and that they’re simply abiding by the rules of their government. But we cannot say that we weren’t disappointed and outraged at the policy itself, not by the fact that the hosts are following it. Why can’t they make an effort to distinguish between government and non-government hosting? Do they realize how many people they’re keeping out? Regional hosting is unstable and incomparable, so we rely on services abroad for our work. Most importantly it’s an issue of security. A lot of bloggers who practice their right to free speech rely on outside services to maintain their anonymous status, myself included.

We have been banned from not just dozens of hosting companies but also these services:

Amongst many others that we may not currently be aware of. I’m a programmer by profession, so you can imagine my struggle with this. Because of my own government, which I have nothing to do with, I am restricted from using many services. Each is either forbidden by the Syrian government or forbidden by the USA, so what am I to do? How can we liberate ourselves from these illogical chains.

At Mideast Youth, breaking the barriers is something we have been doing for years, and something we think we are good at. We would like to extend our help and support to users who are suffering as a result of these policies:

This is ideal for bloggers. We are working on something to cover the needs of more sophisticated sites that require database access amongst many other things.

This is a temporary solution for those who need time and money to figure out what their next step is, or to seek for hosting services in Europe or any other area that does not have the same policy. We can keep hosting you for a year or more.

Due to lack of funding and therefore, resources, this is all we can offer for now and hope that some of you will find it useful.

We can host up to 40 websites, currently, but will acquire extra space if we feel that people need it. We have a feeling a lot of professional bloggers already have backup plans lined up for them, so we are starting small to measure the urgency and need for our services and will act accordingly depending on the results.

Contact us for more information.