ISPs accused of supporting jihad

THE ABILITY to register a domain name anonymously has come under fire from a Canadian newspaper, the Globe and Mail. It's accused Register.com and Tucows of helping Islamic terrorists.

The problem stems from the fact that - for a few extra bucks - Yarmouth, Nova Scotia based Register.com is prepared to hide your identity.

Try to find out who registered any one of these websites and you'll be handed an address and phone number in Yarmouth, Canada.

Normally such a facility would be welcomed by civil liberties groups. But unfortunately it appears that a whole bunch of Islamic web sites have also decided to take advantage of the facility.

The article also goes on to claim that an Internet address that belongs to Contactprivacy, the anonymous-registration arm of Canadian domain name provider, Tucows, had been used by al-Qaeda.

This is going to be a fun debate. The fight for democracy appears to require the removal of an individual's right to anonymity - let alone free speech.

More on this story here. µ