Stephane Van Gelder

I was initially only going to write about this story in French, mainly because I didn't really want to repeat in English the opinions I'd already voiced in a French-language post on the subject.

But an eCommerceTimes article I read since writing that post has infuriated me enough to get me going on this subject again…

Just for you non-French speakers out there, this is all about the new storm brewing around Network Solutions. This time, it's over Netsol's decision to suspend the website of controversial far-right Dutch politician Geert Wilders. His site was used to promote an upcoming film about the man's obsession: showing that the Koran is a racist book and getting it banned in Holland.

Netsol suspended the website and put the message used as this post's illustration up instead. The company has explained that the domain name hasn't been locked and that Wilders can do what he wants with it. Netsol is apparently just not comfortable with hosting content which might possibly spark the similar kind of racial tensions seen around the cartoons of Prophet Mohammed

I've since read many articles critical of this decision to suspend the site, but none quite so one-sided as the eCommerceTimes. Under the heading "Domain Name Registrars: The Weakest Link in Online Free Speech", the writer of this piece argues that for people who want to take down offending content, the easiest way nowadays isn't to go after the site's publisher, but the registrar behind the website. These "usually anonymous Internet players will fold like a tent in the face of an impending storm" says ECT's Erika Morphy.