U.S. hosting providers cutting off Iranian users?

Hossein Derakhshan reports, citing the BBC's Persian edition, that Iranians who have hosting or domain registration in the United States are being refused or cut off by their U.S. hosting providers.

Iran is on a U.S. blacklist that is intended to prevent it from receiving technology that it could bend to military uses. For example, it is particularly illegal to transmit encryption technology to Iran. I'm looking for a copy of the law or regulation now but I haven't found it yet.

If U.S. providers won't host Iranian web pages, reform-minded Iranians lose out, as do U.S. efforts to support them. They can't host their web pages on Iranian providers. I don't know whether it is at all easy for an Iranian to host a web page with, for example, a provider in an European country.

So I doubt that the U.S. ought to apply its restrictive technology policy to web-hosting. But even if the Department of State or other agencies are not putting pressure on hosting providers, those providers may themselves restrict access in order to avoid a conflict with the government. If that's the case, then what is needed — as a first step — is communication from and among the various government agencies that could potentially be involved, making it clear whether they intend to make life difficult for hosting providers who provide access to Iranians. A policy of prosecuting hosting providers would be unfortunate for reform-minded Iranians and contrary to the policies announced in President Bush's inaugural speech.

I have seen some comments conjecturing that this is part of some action leading up to a conflict between the United States and Iran. I suspect it's just the application of a technology blacklist that's been in effect for decades. But like most embargos, it harms the people the U.S. wants to help; and in this case, it harms them in a politically powerful way.

I hope it is just ISPs being overcautious, but even if it is, then someone in the government needs to tell them that they can relax. But governmental communication, especially on points such as these, is sadly too much to hope for.

[Via Dan Gillmor]