US Web Hosts Self-Censor: Newsweek (March 9, 2009) - A Newsweek article, which will appear on newsstands next week, has condemned web host BlueHost (www.bluehost.com) for censoring users affiliated with foreign countries, however, this common practice, which has its faults, it can be argued that it is often the only way large web hosts can effectively weed out customers using web hosting for illegal purposes.
The Newsweek article described the situation when Belarus-born Washington DC lawyer Yaraslau Kryvoi got a notice in February from his web hosting firm that the blog he administers for his local Belarussian American Association chapter would be suspended and that he had 10 days to remove his content. This was, in effect, because BlueHost mistakenly throught that Kryvoi was a citizen of a country on the US government's list of rogue states.
Many large web hosts including HostMonster, Blaser Hosting and Biz Builder Hosting explicitly prohibit countries based on the perceived risk of dealing with them. Newsweek rightly implies that this is a form of profiling, however, from a web hosting perspective, eliminating large, troublesome areas helps companies more efficiently police customer websites.
According to its Terms of Service, BlueHost sanctions countries based on the government's economic and trade sanctions. BlueHost states that the US government, through "various of its offices and agencies, ...has determined that, with respect to all or certain commercial activities that would otherwise occur between i) the US, its citizens or residents on the one hand and ii) the governments, citizens, or residents of certain other countries ("Sanctioned Countries") on the other hand, said commercial activities are to be prohibited, embargoed, sanctioned, banned, and/or otherwise excluded."
The countries BlueHosts presently sanctions include Belarus, Burma, Cote d'Ivoire, Cuba, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Iran, Iraq, former Liberian Regime of Charles Taylor, North Korea, Sudan, Syria, Zimbabwe, and countries belonging to "the Balkans."
While ideally, web hosts should be able to account for everything they host, much like newspaper publisher has a responsibility for what is published in their paper, however, as online crime continues to be profitable, criminals will continue to find hosts for their frauds and scams.
For some hosts, imposing rigid rules on international users may be a necessity so that these hosts can keep tabs on their US-approved clients, which can be equally threatening.
The dangers of laissez-faire web hosting were revealed when web hosting provider McColo (www.mccolo.com), which allegedly hosted some of the Internet's most malicious online scams, went offline in November 2008, reducing the global amount of spam by three quarters according to some estimates.
Again, while Newsweek brings up the point that US hosting companies blacklisting certain rogue states is just as anti-democratic as these purportedly authoritarian states, there are plenty of reputable hosts that will host sites from around the world - though perhaps not for just $6.95 per month.
BlueHost, HostMonster Reach Milestone (January 14, 2008) - Domain registrar and Web hosting providers, BlueHost (bluehost.com) and HostMonster (hostmonster.com) announced on Monday that their combined hosting platforms have surpassed 700,000 domains hosted -- a 33 percent increase since September 2007.
The past few months have seen a significant growth in the two companies, resulting in 175,000 new domains hosted during the last quarter. Both Web hosts have grown their product offerings through partnerships with leading companies to include spam protection, coupons for free PPC advertising credits, shopping carts and merchant account services.
"Its easy for a small company to say they have grown by 25 percent, 50 percent or even 100 percent in a quarter when they are talking about a few thousand customers," says Matt Heaton, CEO and founder of BlueHost and HostMonster. "What really starts turning heads is when you can say, we just grew by 175,000 domains last quarter and the first 525,000 took us 4 years."
Heaton also announced he has launched domain registrar and hosting provider FastDomain (fastdomain.com). The ICANN accredited domain registrar plans to offer domain registration and management services along with hosting solutions.
BlueHost Reaches 150,000 Domains (June 16, 2006) - Web hosting and domain registrar provider BlueHost (bluehost.com) announced on Friday it recently passed the 150,000 domain milestone.
The company attributes the success partly to its feature-rich plans, offering a Web hosting plan that includes 15GB of storage space and free features, including blogs, message forums, e-commerce, search engine submission, video streaming support and more.
"BlueHost is extremely proud of this recent milestone," said Matt Heaton, president of BlueHost. "Our business is growing at a rapid rate and we anticipate continued success going forward. Our customers appreciate the fact that they can call us any time of the day and speak with a knowledgeable representative about all aspects of their Web hosting needs."
Since 1996, BlueHost has provided hosting solutions to thousands of business and personal Web sites.
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