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Tag: NearlyFreeSpeech alternative

  • Free speech hosting in Iceland with OrangeWebsite

    Free speech hosting in Iceland with OrangeWebsite

    OrangeWebsite is a hosting company specialised in free speech hosting with its headquarters and servers based in Iceland, their terms and conditions allow you to host any controversial material with the only exception of neonazi websites because ethnic agitation is a crime in Iceland and sites that promote potential harm to minors or link to child pornography. You are also allowed to run a tor proxy or VPN using one of their servers, their range of services embrace private whois domain registration (outside the USA), shared hosting for small businesses or personal websites, virtual servers and dedicated servers. Customers can sign up for hosting, affiliate program and domain registration anonymously, you will only be asked for your email address and Bitcoins will be used for payments.

    I was given a package to test their services and I was quite pleased with everything, I have been using cPanel for years but I had not problem getting used to their ispCP (Internet Service Provider Control Panel) administration panel used to manage domains and files, it is more simple than cPanel and has less features but enough to get the job done, if you would like to install WordPress or a similar platform and do not know how to do it, you can request to have it installed for you at no extra cost when you order the hosting plan. The welcome email will include all the details you need to set your website, host IP to FTP files, DNS server for your domain and a URL to access webmail (RoundCube), one of the addresses is indicated as special access without leaving any logs.

    OrangeWebsite hosting control panel
    OrangeWebsite hosting control panel

    Backups are performed daily but the SQL database will have to be downloaded manually using using phpMyAdmin where the username is your database user and password is the database user password, one main difference to have into account in comparison with cPanel.

    OrangeWebsite should fulfill the needs of those longing for reasonably priced offshore free speech hosting and/or privacy email service (hosted or forwarded) located outside the EU and USA, the best part is that they accept Bitcoin payments making anonymity easier to achieve cutting payment processing companies and their silly terms and conditions out of the equation, this hosting company should also be suitable for people in need of personalised in-house support as opposed to big hosting companies where customers are just a ticket number to the staff. It should not be difficult for a customer to contact OrangeWebsite CEO if you have to.

    UPDATE 2013: OrangeWebsite is now using cPanel for webhosting.

    Visit OrangeWebsite hosting

  • List of free speech and offshore hosting companies

    When choosing a free speech hosting company you should assess the kind of content you host, for example, in the USA although the 1st Amendment protects free speech a powerful multinational can try to get around it by launching a frivolous lawsuit that a small webmaster can’t fight in court due to lack of resources, and in China any pro Tibet website will be taken down by the Government.

    You will leave tracks behind when you upload your site and make payments, these companies are not truly anonymous even thought some advertise as such, to host controversial content anonymously use Tor hidden sites or i2P, but they will only be reachable by people using the appropriate software.

    Free speech hosting

    • DreamHost: Budget host offering shared and dedicated hosting, their terms and conditions allow for any content that is legal in the United States to be hosted, including pornography. DreamHost hosts the American Nazi Party website and refused to take down Prophet Muhammad cartoons even after a denial of service attack was launched against them by Alqeda sympathisers.

    Get $60 discount in Dreamhost entering code: HACKER10

    • Anonymous Speech: Servers located in Asia, it can be paid using cash, Paypal or credit card, this company also provides anonymous domain name registration and encrypted email services that do not keep logs. They offer shared and dedicated hosting, it allows for the creation of sub domains and comes with a free secure email account.
    • NearlyFreeSpeech: Webhost based in the US where you only pay for the amount of bandwidth and storage space consumed, it runs its own custom hosting panel, their terms and conditions state that the webmaster must register his real name and address, the company carries out random identity checks asking for a passport scan to be emailed.
    • PRQ.se: Servers and company located in Sweden, if your content is legal in Sweden they will host it, no questions asked. They maintain minimum information about their customers and very few logs, PRQ used to host Wikileaks and other highly controversial content, support for SQL databases, SSL certificates and DNS.

     Offshore hosting

    The following hosts have a free speech policy that comes with restrictions, even if your content is legal they can refuse to host it, the only advantage over other traditional hosting is that their servers are offshore.

    • ZenSurfrei: Specialist in offering hosting for neonazi websites in a USA server, where, unlike some European countries, they allow this kind of material. Everything is paid with cash inside an envelope, including the domain name, this guarantees webmaster anonymity.
    • OrangeWebsite: Company and servers are all based in Iceland, they will ignore all complaints against legal websites with the exception of racist or pro-paedophilia content, which is not allowed.
    • CCiHosting: Operated and hosted in Panama, offering Linux and Windows servers, they advertise their services as anonymous webhosting. Support provided via live chat or phone.
    • Ctyme: Based in the USA, they do not allow hosting of content like fiction child sex stories, even thought they are legal in the US, not sure about how their “free speech” policy is any better than HostGator or any other major US.
    • AnonymousHosting.in:  The company is registered in privacy friendly Seychelles and has a no information exchange policy with complaints, the servers are located in the Netherlands. Pharmaceutical sites are welcome, racist, any type of child porn, hacking and warez are all banned.
    •  YoHost: Their terms and conditions claims that you can not use their servers to host any kind of porn, sites encouraging the destruction of property will also be removed as well as phishing scams. They only rent a VPS or full server and YoHost will collaborate with law enforcement if criminal content is found.
    • KatzGlobal: Offering hosting in multiple Asian locations (Singapore, China, India, Malaysia, Australia) as well as hosting in the US. They use cPanel and have standard features that come with it, like SQL database, FTP access and POP3 mail boxes. There is no support to host multiple domains on a single account.
    • SecureHost: Located in the Bahamas, it provides dedicated, shared and VPS hosting, they also provide a Bahamas based phone number and fax which messages can be retrieved from abroad. Their terms and conditions state that you can not host anything that SecureHost judges to be harmful to their reputation.
    • Cinipac: Based in Panama, they claim they will not cooperate with authorities or institutions without a proper warrant. Hosting servers are available in the USA, Asia and Europe. The usual phishing, spam and terrorist groups hosting is banned. Backups are encrypted with AES256.
  • Private hosting in Iceland with 1984 hosting

    Private hosting in Iceland with 1984 hosting

    Powered by free software and green energy with their headquarters and equipment in Iceland, 1984 hosting offers private hosting, VPS, domain registration, email and free DNS services, the company claims that they will go the extra mile to protect their customers right of freedom of speech, privacy and anonymity, they will not reply to threatening emails and will only obey a valid Icelandic court order, if they become aware of any investigation by the authorities 1984 hosting will warn the customer unless there is a gagging order, one of the two founders is a member of the Icelandic IMM (International Modern Media Institute), a foundation working for free speech.

    Control panel 1984 hosting
    Control panel 1984 hosting

    I was given a test account to see what their services are like, 1984 shared hosting has a custom hosting panel based on ispCP, simple and easy to use, you will not get lost or wonder where things are, functions can be accessed within a couple of clicks, the panel default language is Icelandic, it can be changed to English, Hungarian, Spanish, Danish and others. On the main tab there are statistics about space and bandwidth, number of SQL databases, FTP accounts and subdomains, backups are perfomed daily and they can be restored using the control panel, custom 404, 401, etc pages can be created too, websites status, like number of visitors, can be measured with awstats. Files can be uploaded using FTP or FTPS (FTP Over Explicit TLS/SSL) with SFTP support being planned for the future, alternatively you can use net2ftp, web based FTP, to upload files via browser, with the hosting account you also get an IMAP/POP3 email account, email can be retrieved with an email client or webmail (SquirrelMail).

    If you go for a VPS there is a list of the most common Linux and BSD distros to choose from or you can ask 1984 hosting to install a particular distribution that isn’t there, payments are made with Paypal or credit card.

    1984 hosting net2FTP
    1984 hosting net2FTP

    The Icelandic Parliament will soon introduce a new legislative freedom of expression framework enshrining protection for whistle blowers, information sources, communications, publication restraint orders and others, this makes the hosting company location ideal, but I was baffled by their free speech policy, while claiming to go the extra mile to protect customers civil rights, and hosting many politically sensitive websites they apparently have speech limits, set by what they called in the email exchange “sense of decency“, and made it clear to me that disagreeing with a website will not have an account terminated but they will not allow racist propaganda or pro-pedophile websites on their network as they say they would not sleep at night if they were serving them, and as for warez and copyrighted material, Iceland has the same laws than any other western country and they have to comply with them.

    My impression is that 1984 hosting could be a good place to publish whistle-blowing or corporate data leaks and count with strong investigative journalism protection out of the reach of US trigger happy libel laws, or you could use it as an offshore webmail account since their hosting prices are reasonable, but don’t push it too hard towards extreme websites not covered by this host so called “free speech” sense of decency.

    Visit 1984 hosting homepage