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A First Amendment case concerning a Web site occurred in February 2008, and that case brought several points to light. The case was brought by a Cayman Islands bank, Julius Baer Bank and Trust, against Wikileaks.org, a site that hopes to reveal unethical behavior in governments and institutions through leaked materials posted on the site. According to the New York Times, “Judge Jeffrey S. White of Federal District Court in San Francisco granted a permanent injunction ordering Dynadot, the site’s domain name registrar, to disable the Wikileaks.org domain name.”

But, anyone who harbors a modicum of Web savvy knows that shuttering a front door to a Web site is a futile effort, as there are other ways to keep a site ‘live.’ In the Wikileaks.org case, users could continue to gain access to the site through its Internet Protocol (IP) address and through mirror sites registered in other countries that the Wikileaks.org organizers created for such a circumstance. Those domain names were not affected by the injunction. Additionally, David Ardia, director of the Citizen Media Law Project at Harvard Law School, stated that Judge White’s order to disable the entire site was not constitutional, and that “there is no justification under the First Amendment for shutting down an entire Web site.”

The First Amendment, in regards to free speech, has been altered in some situations regarding anonymous speech, pornography, sedition, hate speech, obscenity, libel, slander, and private action, etc. So, although Ardia proclaims no justification in shutting down a site, it is a wise Web master/owner/host who is familiar with free speech court rulings or who has access to an attorney familiar with these matters. Otherwise, in the case of some hate or pornographic sites for instance, the web master may bounce around from host to host if someone seeks to shut your site down.

With that said, most Web host providers may set rules for hosting a site on their servers. If you violate those terms of service (TOS) or any Acceptable Use Policy (AUP), that Web host has every right to shut your site down (or remove a portion of that site) and refuse service. But, what makes the Web so difficult to silence — outside the fact that it is almost impossible shut down a site — is the fact that the Web is not print. A Web site is inclusive, interactive, and it invites people to assemble. These actions, also, are part of the First Amendment rights. For this reason, the case for free speech on Web sites is not guaranteed, as many rules are unclear. So, if you want to voice an opinion on or through a Web site, consider Web sites where the owners are unwilling to play the role of arbiter (such as the group-messaging service Twitter), or Web hosts who welcome Web sites that promote free speech exercises.

Due to rules set in place by the government of the United States of America, American Web host providers cannot host clients from the following countries: Burma, Cuba, Iran, Iraq, Liberia, Libya, North Korea, Sudan, Syria, or Zimbabwe. But, this list may change as relationships between the U.S. and any one of these countries change.

As a side note, we searched Whois for hosts to Web sites that claimed free speech or to sites that were one of at least 4,000 hate sites on the Internet. We figured that if a hosting provider would allow free speech or hate sites on a network, then they may have some modicum of free speech allowance configured into their TOS or AUP. To that end, we’ve chosen ten free speech Web hosts (not including the sites listed on our other free speech article), listed them below, and arranged them in order from most to least expensive. This methodology does not indicate that we approve of one Web host provider over another.

1. The Planet: The Planet makes no claim to free speech allowances, but we discovered a hate site on their network in addition to a free speech advocate site. To that end, The Planet’s AUP does state that it reserves the right to comply with any investigation without notice to a user. The Planet also reserves the right to disclose information relating to users and their use of The Planet services, “if such information is disclosed in connection with an investigation or in order to prevent the death of or bodily harm to any individual, as determined by The Planet in its sole discretion.” The Planet’s services range from dedicated servers to enterprise-class managed hosting. They serve more than 22,000 customers from six SAS 70 Type II certified data centers. Starting prices for dedicated hosting can begin at bargain-basement prices of $50.00 per server.
2. Versaweb.net: Versaweb will cooperate with legal authorities and/or injured third parties in the investigation of any suspected criminal or civil wrongdoing, they do not accept child pornography, unsolicited commercial email / SPAM services or any other scripts and programs designed for potential misuse or abuse of network services. With that said, Versaweb maintains a very strong track record for protecting First Amendment rights and privacy rights for their customers. They offer reseller options, co-location services, dedicated servers and VPS. The Virtual Private Servers currently start at $24.95 per month.
3. ZoneEdit: ZoneEdit hosts reliable DNS servers, domain registration, e-mail servers for email forwarding, and web servers for URL forwarding and parked domains. ZoneEdit provides a convenient single-location, integrated, web-based domain manager for configuring all of the services provided. You cannot spam or conduct illegal business while using ZoneEdit’s services, but they will host hate sites. According to a 2004 article, when the ZoneEdit owner was questioned as to why he hosted hate sites, he stated that, “They will just host in another country, my feeling is I’d rather have sites hosted here in the U.S. where we can aid in any investigations that may occur.” This hosting service is free — first 5 domains added with under 200MB usage each, and then begins at $10.95 per month after that free usage has expired.
4. Hosting Zoom: Hosting Zoom provides clustered solutions with real-time data replication and redundant environment. While this environment is ideal for traffic spikes and heavy volume, Hosting View does not consider sexually explicit materials, spam and a long list of prohibitions that pertain mainly to hate speech. But, a search for this site and “free speech” showed that people have been able to work with Hosting Zoom to host sites that some might consider ‘on the line.’ In other words, Hosting Zoom doesn’t jump to conclusions, but will give users benefit of the doubt when it comes to free speech, especially if the user can cite materials and/or prove a claim. Their service currently charges a $19.95 set up fee and hosting that starts at $9.95 per month.
5. Dreamhost: Sometimes a Web hosting provider’s TOS won’t be specific about what they will host — but, information about what they won’t host can help define parameters. Dreamhost won’t host sites that contain material in violation of any “country, federal, state or local regulation.” In other words, if you live in France and you post Nazi materials on a Dreamhost site, you may be in trouble. France prohibits use of those materials on their Web sites, and Dreamhost’s willingness to abide by other country’s laws sidesteps the problems that Yahoo! encountered in 2000. Also, you cannot post child pornography, any infringement on copyrighted materials, or any content that advocates, sells or in any way makes available tools or methods to send unsolicited e-mail or usenet postings (spam). But, a search for free speech and Dreamhost reveals that some Pagan users and book authors are happy with Dreamhost’s willingness to host materials that have been banned on other hosting services. Additionally, we found one hate site hosted here. Services with Dreamhost start at $5.95 per month.
6. Host QT: According to this site’s TOS, the user is solely responsible for the content of his or her messages. Using the HostQT.com Service in connection with pyramid schemes, chain letters, junk e-mail, spamming or any duplicative or unsolicited messages (commercial or otherwise) is prohibited, and users cannot violate any law, statute, ordinance or regulation that involves defamation, trade libel, threats, unlawful harassment, abusive or obscene language or images, “including child pornography, and/or pornography of an incestuous nature.” But, if you want to push the envelope re: free speech matters, just make sure you have proof, citations, or other materials that will back up your claims. Host QT is one of those Web hosts that will give users the benefit of the doubt. Their hosting fees (starter plan) begin at $5.95 per month.
7. InMotion Hosting: We discovered free speech Web sites hosted here, but we were unsuccessful in any hate site discoveries. They don’t allow pornographic material (including Anime), fraud, mailbombing, denial of service attacks, storing and/or housing and/or linking to illegal content. But, they seem to look the other way in regards to freedom of speech, especially mainstream pro-inclusive sites. Several of their hosting packages have been upgraded recently to include more disk space, bandwidth, email and more. Their packages start with a small personal Web hosting plan and increase in space, bandwidth, and features up to Virtual Personal and Dedicated server systems. Their least expensive package with our current coupon comes to $3.00 per month.
8. NoZoneNet: This hosting company, now known as Steadfast, states that they “will not tolerate any unlawful activity or abuse on our servers. We respect freedom of speech and expression unless it is harmful to others.” But, this AUP must extend to hate sites, as at least one was found on this company’s network. Therefore, either this site has gone under Steadfast’s radar, or they’re also open to site that promote free speech. Steadfast Networks and Steadfast Servers are fully owned subsidiaries of NoZone, Inc., which was founded in August of 1998 by Karl Zimmerman and incorporated in the state of Wisconsin on October 18, 2000. Their least expensive hosting option — shared hosting — begins at $25.00 per year (comes to $2.08 per month).
9. EveryDNS.net: This is where Wikileaks.org now resides. EveryDNS.net’s mission is to provide DNS services to the Internet community, so they provide static DNS services as well as many advanced services free at what they hope is 100 percent reliability. Their TOS states, “Member agrees: (1) to comply with US law regarding the transmission of technical data exported from the United States through the service; (2) not to use the Service for illegal purposes; (3) not to interfere with or disrupt networks connected to the Service; and (4) to comply with all regulations, policies, and procedures of networks connected to the Service.” This company does appreciate a donation, perhaps between $15.00 to $30.00 at user’s discretion.
10. DynDNS: If you want true freedom of speech, DynDNS sets two boundaries only: 1) you must be eighteen years of age to use their services, and; 2) you cannot reside in any of the countries named in the body of this article above. Otherwise, you and you alone are responsible for your content. This company offers domain name services (DNS), domain management, e-mail services, Web redirection, and network monitoring. All of their services include free technical support by e-mail or phone where you speak to a highly trained engineer rather than a call center reading a script off of a screen. They offer home and business solutions (clients include CNN and Twitter, so you know they can handle high traffic), and systems in the DynDNS clusters are commodity-based hardware running the FreeBSD operating system. Switching and routing operations are powered by Juniper and Cisco equipment. Best of all, it’s free to create an account.

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