Media News - Tuesday, July 15, 2008

Web vigilante takes down terror sites

The Canadian Internet service provider iWeb recently removed three websites powered by Hamas and Hizbullah from their network of subscribers after complaints were filed against the company. Canadian law designates both Hamas and Hizbullah as terrorist organizations whose operations are barred by law, yet the militant groups were hosted online by a Montreal-based corporation. The first of the illicit URLs was discovered by Toronto native Jonathan HaLevi, a senior researcher of the Middle East and Radical Islam at the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs. Upon discovering that an official Hamas website was being hosted by a Canadian server, HaLevi immediately sent iWeb an e-mail requesting its removal. The company replied that the Hamas site was purely informational. After further investigation however, iWeb did concede to remove the Hamas page from their server. After reporting that Hizbullah may be activating sleeper cells in Canada, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation questioned iWeb about two additional websites, one promoting Hizbullah and the other in support of Hamas's militant wing, both of which were eventually taken down. According to HaLevi, as much as 95 percent of online activity powered by terrorist organizations, including al-Qaida and Hamas, is hosted by American servers. The tremendous difficulty in establishing a direct link between the Web designer and the service provider inhibits the ability of the authorities to file charges. (The Jerusalem Post)

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