More than two dozen Web sites belonging to the government of Syria are being hosted by servers in the US, Canada and Germany, according to a report by Canadian researchers.
The report, released on Thursday, said the operations raise legal questions because they may violate Canadian and US sanctions against Syria. Syria has used police and military forces for the past eight months to put down a popular uprising.
Ronald Deibert, the director of the Citizen Lab at the Munk School of Global Affairs at the University of Toronto, said several Syrian Web sites — including the ministries of finance, economy and trade, and religious affairs — are hosted on US-based servers.
Overall, the report said, 17 Syrian government Web sites are hosted by Canadian providers, seven are hosted by US providers and two by German companies.
“We had a moral obligation to report this, given the violence in Syria,” Deibert said in a telephone interview.
One of the US-based companies, called SoftLayer, is listed as hosting the ministries of finance and economy and trade, as well as the General Commission for Competition and Anti-monoply. SoftLayer did not immediately respond to a message seeking comment.
iWeb, a Montreal-based hosting company, is listed as hosting several Syrian government sites. A company spokeswoman said iWeb would have a statement later on Thursday.
The report said that in Canada and the US, a Web host typically has not been held liable for such content if the company responds to requests that it be taken down.
Deibert said it was unclear whether Web hosting violates US and Canadian sanctions. Canada’s foreign affairs department did not respond to a request for comment.
“There’s definitely a question. Cyberspace governance is immature and underdeveloped,” Deibert said. “Sanctions are designed around a world much less fluid and material than cyberspace is. I think if you are going to put named entities on a sanctions list that government needs to provide some guidance to the private sector about what that means.”
Deibert also cautioned that any removal of a Web site from a Web hosting service should also be treated as a potential infringement on freedom of speech and access to information.
The report also said Syrian state TV station Addounia TV, which has been sanctioned by Canada and the EU for inciting violence against Syrian citizens, uses Canadian-based Web servers to host its Web site.
“Addounia TV to me is probably the most serious because it is a television station that has been sanctioned for inciting violence,” Deibert said.
Deibert added that Romeo Dallaire, the Canadian general who headed the UN peacekeeping force during the 1994 Rwandan genocide, regretted not pulling the plug on a radio station that incited genocide in Rwanda.
The report also says a Web site for the Lebanese political party Hezbollah is hosted on Canadian and US-based servers. Canada classifies Hezbollah as a terrorist organization.
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese
RIVER TRAGEDY: Local fishers and residents helped rescue people after the vessel capsized, while motorbike taxis evacuated some of the injured At least 58 people going to a funeral died after their overloaded river boat capsized in the Central African Republic’s (CAR) capital, Bangui, the head of civil protection said on Saturday. “We were able to extract 58 lifeless bodies,” Thomas Djimasse told Radio Guira. “We don’t know the total number of people who are underwater. According to witnesses and videos on social media, the wooden boat was carrying more than 300 people — some standing and others perched on wooden structures — when it sank on the Mpoko River on Friday. The vessel was heading to the funeral of a village chief in