Note: Today’s rapidly growing and evolving blogosphere presents virtually every person with the opportunity to publish their thoughts, ideas, and opinions on the internet. It can be argued that nobody appreciates this opportunity more than people living under governments that suppress Freedom of Speech. Blogs give these individuals an outlet through which they can make their voices heard. Unfortunately, in mid-February, many of these voices were silenced as Bluehost, one of the world’s largest hosting companies, decided to act on Article 13 in its Terms of Service. Article 13 restricts the use of Bluehost’s services in countries sanctioned under U.S. international law. As an unfortunate side-effect to the blanket-ban, users both inside and outside of the sanctioned countries have been notified that their sites are coming down. Many of the blogs run by people outside of their countries are being removed because of their association with the country. This issue has worried many bloggers and human rights organizations that see blogging as a means to get around blocks on freedom of speech. In this article, written by a popular Iranian blogger, Arash Kamangir talks about the repercussions of Bluehost’s actions on the blogging communities both inside and outside of Iran and other U.S. sanctioned countries.

When Khatami decided to pull out of the presidential race only ninety days before the election day, I wrote a short goodbye post for him. The language I used in the post was quite informal, even when compared with the normal standards of my blog. Not only was the language informal, the message of the post was largely unorthodox. I suggested that, now that Khatami is gone, Ahmadinejad will, hopefully, be reelected and then we will see if taking the fruit basket out of the presidential plane[1] will result in national prosperity. I referenced reports published by the state-run media—and cherished by fans of Ahmadinejad—that the President made a minister of the cabinet pay the extra expense of printing a brochure on glossy paper instead of plain white paper, out of his own pocket. The day after any such reports—and we have had a lot of them in the past three years—there would be one blogger who would go the last mile and do the math to show that the President and his fans are proud of a revolutionary action that saved the government less than one thousand dollars, when the National Audit Office is reporting one billion dollars in oil revenue that is missing.[2] That post received a comment from a reader that said “Now you have to ask yourself why Iranians take the idea of a simple life so seriously and why they are hurt by other leaders who lead lives of extravagance.[3]” That comment is the reason that I think the recent actions taken by Bluehost[4] are bad for Iran and the rest of the world.

Do we have to build the integrity of our political system around the self-restraint of our leaders, or do we need to devise a system of checks and balances that makes the leader—with all the flaws in his or her personality—behave accordingly? Do we need to find that single God-loving spiritually-cleansed super-human being, give them all the keys, and go back to our homes, leaving the arrangements to him? Or do we have to look for the people of knowledge and judgment; people whom we have tested in other, less sensitive positions, and put them in charge, all the while watching over them through the media and watch dog NGOs? These are questions that are well thought out in any Western democracy. The majority of the people in such societies know by instinct that State and Religion have to be kept apart, that a "good politician” does not necessarily translate into the "person who spends the most time in a church" or a mosque. Open any book on political philosophy and the debate is summarized there. To put it more precisely, “their” debate is summarized there. How about ours? How about our discussions about these essential questions?

That debate is what happens on blogs and websites hosted on Bluehost servers. That is what the "politically unbiased" Western company is going to cut off because of article number 13 in its terms of service, which, even to my untrained eyes, is a clause written in the language lawyers understand and use when they mean "I don't want any trouble." The Persian blogosphere is the vibrant vehicle of discussion among the Iranian youth.

Fars News reported on March 18 that "A number of structured Persian-speaking networks which acted with an anti-religion and anti-culture agenda on the Internet were destroyed." Reportedly, in a series of "complex intelligence/technical operations" the "organized cyber crime division" of Sepah (IRGC), arrested a number of individuals who were supported by foreign intelligence services and acted "in pursuit of the enemy's goals." The press report made by the IRGC division list the wrongdoings of the involved individuals as "insulting and demythologizing religious beliefs, insulting the Quran and the respected figures of Islam, advocacy for very serious personal and family-related immoralities, advertising the smuggling of Iranian girls out of the country," and the list continues. While, similar to any other cyberspace of the same proportions, there are many dark corners in the Persian-speaking Internet, the list of "crimes" given in the press report does include familiar words and phrases. Personal immorality? Well, Amazon.com is a major source of advocacy for "immorality," with all the books on masturbation and one book in particular called Orgasms: How to Have Them, Give Them, and Keep Them Coming. Demythologizing religious beliefs? I do that on my blog! How can you not do that when the President says he saw a halo around his head at the UN?

When I wrote about Bluehost's suspension of a number of Persian blogs on my own Persian blog, which is, ironically, hosted by Bluehost as well, a commenter left this: "I hope this does not happen. Discussion [...] is good and helps us learn from each other. This story has a good aspect as well; Bluehost is, in fact, acting as the representative of the prosecuting attorney in cyber-crimes."[5] I tend to call this commenter "Mr. Islamic Republic" on my blog, because, even if we ignore his claims of actually being "involved," he does support the ideological standpoints of the Islamic Republic in comments and discussions.

Seinfeld's George Costanza once said "we need to talk" is "the worst four words in the English language." Some of the people who comment on our Persian blogs—though not particularly fond of the "perverted" Western culture—do share the same viewpoint with Mr. Costanza. My father once took me to the streets in front of the University of Tehran, now called Revolution Street, and showed me the pavement. He said, "There was a time when, at every inch of this pavement, a person was passionately advocating for a political group." The Persian blogosphere is the electronic version of those packed streets which were silenced soon after the takeover of power by the current administration. The fact of the matter is that the Persian blogosphere will not die out if Bluehost stops hosting our blogs. We have a lot of passion for asking the questions people in every other prosperous country have started asking themselves at some point in time. What will be remembered from these series of events, however, is the irony of blogs being silenced because a legal clause that stops an American company from doing "business" with a citizen of Iran when that very "business" is, in fact, what the government of Iran—the reason for the ban—is so nervous about.