If this sounds like a lame excuse, that’s because it is a lame excuse. It’s incredibly disappointing to see more service providers cutting off customers simply because they decide (or fear) that content is too volatile or unpopular to host. And the runaround that this user received from his host and its upstream provider demonstrates the broader problems with the lack of any real transparency or process around such important decisions.
Internet intermediaries — whether directly in contract with their users or further up the chain — need to stick up for their customers, not undermine their freedom to speak online. As we’ve said before, your speech online is only as free as the weakest intermediary.
via Electronic Frontier Foundation – Wikileaks Mirror Taken Down: Host Buckles Under Demands from Upstream Provider. It’s sad when we can’t even trust companies that we pay to stick up for our rights. Perhaps even worse it’s over a hypothetical future action, not current or past actions.
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