Free Speech Web Hosting

Free Speech Web Hosting, What's the Big Deal?

Many people, especially those who have never lived under the rule of a dictatorship, do not fully appreciate how critical the right of free speech is.

The Story of Martin Neimoller

One example of how important free speech is to a society is the poignant statement to U.S. Congress in 1968 by Pastor Martin Neimoller, which referenced his experiences under the Nazis regime. Martin was a U-boat captain in World War I who later became a religious pastor, and spoke out against the Nazi party as they gained power in Germany. He was jailed in 1937 for his speeches, and Hitler eventually had Martin confined to a concentration camp throughout World War II. In front of Congress, he said:

The Internet: Where Free Speech is Global

The centuries provide us with many reasons why freedom of speech is so critically important to maintaining basic human freedom from oppression and dictatorship. Today, the Internet provides citizens in every country an opportunity to stand up and make their voices heard.

Attacking Free Speech on the Internet

Unfortunately, modern society, especially in the United States, has become burdened under a legal system that encourages lawsuits. The worse kind of lawsuits are those that governments and organizations might use to squelch the voices of individuals who disagree with them. The following are a few examples of attempts to destroy free speech on the Internet.

Church of Scientology: The Church of Scientology has sued countless Internet service providers to have any website that publishes their OT "scriptures" removed from the Internet. Ron Newman's website, "The Church of Scientology vs. The Net" outlines the multitude of legal actions seeking to silence the free speech of former Scientology members and their sympathizers.

U.S. Government Censorship: While the U.S. government has been working for years on ways to protect children from pornography on the internet without infringing on the rights of its citizens, the War on Terror has introduced a new level of internet censorship from the U.S. Government. In 2007, a bill entitled "The Violent Radicalization and Homegrown Terrorism Prevention Act of 2007" was introduced in order to create a commission that would investigate potential domestic terrorist groups. The bill mentioned that terrorists could use the internet to spread their ideology. Civil Liberties watchdog groups immediately took a stand against the bill, making it very clear that attempts to censor the internet of any sort of speech would trample over every citizen's basic right to nonviolent dissent. Public response against the bill forced it to stall in the Senate.

Promoting Free Speech on the Internet

Due to the power of the Internet to publish and distribute dissenting opinions against governments, political parties, and organizations, several progressive web hosts are making an impressive stand against these threats. These web hosts trust that the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, and the U.N. "Universal Declaration of Human Rights" will provide the ultimate protection. While these web hosts may not agree with many of the controversial and unpopular opinions hosted on their servers, they are standing up to protect every person's basic right to publish them.

Web Hosts that Protect Free Speech

The following web hosts have a proven track record for standing firm against lawsuits and threats to have web pages taken down. If you have something to say that may be considered a form of unpopular dissent, or controversial, consider hosting your website with one of these web hosts.

• 1st-Amendment.org is one of the top hosts that promise to protect your right to free speech. This is one of the few free speech hosts that offer free hosting, as well as more functional paid upgrades.
• FSWH stands for "Free Speech Web Hosting." This company seeks to publish content that other hosts are afraid to. Unlike even most other free speech hosts, FSWH is also willing to publish adult content.
• Zensurfrei is a very simple web host that not only seeks to provide you with the ability to publish your free speech, but it also allows you to do it absolutely anonymously. The website even states that Zensurfrei doesn't even need to know who you are, they will still host your content.
• The DoD Project seeks to provide public web hosting to "much of the alienated public" that allows citizens to host their free speech with a host that isn't owned by a corporation "and its shortfalls."
• Crisis Host is a long-running free speech host that allows its customers to publish any content whatsoever, as long as it isn't illegal.
• NearlyFreeSpeech is another great progressive web host that allows you to pay only for the bandwidth that your site uses. This allows you to publish a small website at virtually no cost, but when you become successful, you also allow NearlyFreeSpeech.Net to share in that success.

Final Words

While free speech is a basic human right, anyone seeking free speech hosting should remember that illegal content such as harassment, personal threats, child pornography, spamming, or illegal media piracy are not protected by the First Amendment, and none of these hosts will allow such content. Other than illegal content, the web hosts mentioned above stand above all other hosting companies in their honorable and patriotic protection of freedom of speech.