Written by lainie at 04:46 PM on May 16, 2008 in Rants, Friends.

Do you remember this post a while ago? : I will not like it if your website host is Exabytes.

It started when Exabytes emailed their new policy (which sweepingly discriminates against all LGBT content) to their clients, including some concerned friends of mine - very informed people from the Voices MMU alumni (debaters - very noisy, very opiniated, usually hilarious and armed with a list of dodgy cocktail recipes).

If you haven't read that post, start there - read the comments (reasons I love Meesh, Example #30kj18315). The CEO of Exabytes left a comment too.

Now, coming up will be a humongously long post. If you want to choose what you read, these are the names to look out for:

Ben, Rafil: Funny emails.

Gordon Lim Chee Keong: Standin up for freedom of speech.

Elizabeth Wong: enquiring further.

Jac SM Kee: (a few emails towards the end of post) - a more in-depth and informed look into the policy's flaws.

Ready? Here we go!

I sent Rafil of Disarseter an email (I'm also designing their advertising, and about to do their website, guess where I won't want it hosted). This is Rafil's email that made my day:

Dear Mr/Ms Ooi/Chan (admin@exabytes.com),

I am Rafil Elyas, President of Disarseter Records Sdn Bhd, one of your NOTABLE CLIENTS (http://www.exabytes.com.my/about/clients/notableclients.html). In addition to Disarseter Records, I also have my East101 Oil and Gas website on your server.

Someone wrote in to complain about my websites being hosted by your company - with the new NO HOMO policy – can you believe that?

Barsket!

“dude. your webhosting company - not cool.” -  some homo.

I believe the above posting was a response to your email below:

“We are regret to inform you that any content (eg: blog, LGBT-friendly establishments, lifestyle or events, clubs, restaurants, cafes, anecdotes, meetups) related to gay and lesbian (homosexual) will be prohibited to be hosted in our server.

If you have any enquiries, please do not hesitate to contact. Thank You!

Ooi PY
--------------------
Customer Service Manager
Exa Bytes Network Sdn Bhd”

I have a question concerning that policy.

But first, I want to congratulate Exabytes for taking this stand!

I’m tried of seeing homo, left wing, liberal, vegan, tree hugging, anti hydrocarbon processing, anti-Ketuanan Melayu sites pop up like mushrooms. We need to curb all these evil liberals.

We need more people like you, Ooi PY, and Chan Kee Siak, people who see these devils for what they truly are.

I believe you understand everyone has their place and rights. We can’t simply be allowing them to spread their homo mind memes on the internet.

Only fools believe everyone should be treated the same and be accorded the same rights (you know, some Malaysian Chinese people even believe they should have the same rights as Malays? Can you believe such a thing in this day and age?).

You show them!

If we can’t exclude people based on their sexual preference, religion or race, then what will become of our society? How do we keep the riff raff in check?

Homos can’t have the same rights, or access to server space for their content as heteros. Period.

Your decision to ban homo content has (social) scientific backing.

As you and I have been taught by our schools, the Biro Tata Negara, Mufti Perak, ZAM,  Malaysia’s leaders, UMNO and Utusan Melayu, the Malaysian social strata (from most to least important) is as follows (server space priority should really be based on this!):

LIST 1

a)    Malay Muslims (e.g., me)

b)    Arab or Caucasian Muslims – refugees or expats (from Bosnia, etc)

c)    Caucasian, non muslim consultants/expats

d)    Bumiputra (may be non muslim)

e)    Non Malay non Muslims (E.g., you, Ooi and Chan)

f)     Criminals and opposition bloggers

Homosexuals are not even recognized!

How to give server space?

Kick the buggers (literally) off!

People say prejudice is bad…but in some cases it’s good and necessary for nation (and network) building and stability, like India’s old caste system.

If our esteemed leaders, Hishammuddin is prejudiced against Chinese, Jamaluddin Jaris is prejudiced against Indians, then there should be no problem if Exabytes is prejudiced against homos and refuses them server space for their content.

I give another example, if Federal Govt want to give contract, must be to Malay BN supporter, first, right (see LIST 1 above)? If you want to provide space for content, sure must give to heterosexuals (men who like women, and women who like men) only, right? How to give to homo to put content, they are not even on list (see LIST 1 above)?

All must know their place!

I am sure Ooi and Chan, you are grateful that my forefathers allowed your forefathers to stay in Malaysia after independence as long as they (and you) knew their place and would not challenge our Malay superiority or rights, and you accept that you will never be equal to us (you’re 4 levels below me in terms of status and preference in this country, see LIST 1 above) …why can’t the homos just be as thankful and defer to the greater good, like you defer to us (and don’t question NEP, for example)?

They should stay in their closets!

And be thankful that we let them breathe the same air as us and that we don’t simply them in our excellent Malaysian Express buses driven by a meth head driver with 100 summonses and “send them all to Singapore”?

SYABAS SAUDARA OOI DAN CHAN!!!

YOU ARE PATRIOTS!!!!

****

Anyway, I’d like to clarify if it’s OK to publish ANTI Homosexual content? I wasn’t sure if ANTI homosexual content was allowed.

For example, we have artists under our label who are vehemently (vehemently means VERY) ANTI HOMOSEXUAL. One of those artists is the very famous Malaysian NEP blues/folk punk duo Panda Head Curry?.

They are so ANTI HOMOSEXUAL they will not even use Macintosh computers or watch programs like Chef Wan’s Favorite Maggie Recipes.

Before we allow their ANTI HOMOSEXUAL content, I wanted to check if it’s OK.

Their content will address issues like:

a)    Why homos are bad and should not be allowed to create websites with homo content

b)    Homos are different, how to spot and avoid them – if they attack, sure you kena homo.

c)    If you like to ride LRT and Monorail, are you homo?

d)    Trying to find cures for homos, focusing on lobotomies, electroshock treatment and Vitamin C therapies.

e)    Why will God send all homos and Enya fans to Hell?

I await your advice.

Yours,

Rafil Elyas

President, Disarseter Records Sdn Bhd

Rafil told me Exabytes replied, approving of anti-homosexual content. I should ask him for that email. Anyway, next up were some replies from other people in the list Rafil had forwarded it to. First to reply was Elizabeth Wong, state assembly person for Bukit Lanjan, Selangor (her blog's cooler).

Dear Ooi,

The next email came from CK (Gordon Lim Chee Keong), of punk band Ben's Bitches:

Dear Mr/Ms Ooi/Chan,

As a true Malaysian who favors freedom of speech, I am absolutely disappointed with your company policy that disallow contents of Pro-Homo and Homophobics to pour out their view on the web. Your policy is eroding our sense of judgment of what can be said and what can't be said. With such policy, you're practically creating homosexual as a taboo in the country.

Internet is a space for international community, and with that, you should do your part to open up issues of international community which involved homosexuals. Everybody have their rights to say what they want; who are you to judge them?

I strongly protest against such policy. I call for a boycott against any webhosting companies that does not favor freedom of speech.

Disappointed,
Gordon Lim Chee Keong

From: admin@exabytes.com

Hello Gordon Lim，

Thank you for writing in.

For your information, it was in our Acceptable Use Policy that Adult content shall not be allowed to be hosted in our server.

Why does Exabytes have this policy?

Bandwidth and Resources
A virtual server is a shared environment where many servers reside on each particular machine. This being said, consider that an average "adult site" gets more hits than 100 standard web sites. Some of the smaller adult sites get around 5 GB of transfer per day. With these types of resources being utilized, our servers would be severely slowed if we allowed these high traffic sites to also reside on our servers. On top of that, we would be forced to raise our prices to pay for the additional bandwidth. We strive to keep our servers fast and inexpensive, and our bandwidth clear; therefore, adult sites are not an option.

Banned IPs
Adult sites tend to get blocked. Since many of our shared accounts also share IP addresses and/or the range of IPs are blocked, all other users on that server or network range are impacted.

Association
Many people do not want to be associated with adult content, based on personal opinions and beliefs. IPs are assigned to a server in ranges and IP address are in many cases shared IPs. Consequently, we want our shared servers to be ‘adult content’ free.

More details about our AUP on Adult Content can be found from the below URL:

http://www.exabytes.com.my/about/legal/aup/#H-adult

We are sorry if by enforcing this policy caused any inconveniences to you in anyway.

If you have any enquiries, please do not hesitate to contact. Thank You!

Ooi PY
--------------------
Customer Service Manager
Exa Bytes Network Sdn Bhd

Web: http://www.exabytes.com | http://www.exabytes.com.my
Helpdesk: http://support.exabytes.com

Dear Mr Ooi,
 
I find it amusing that Exabytes, being an rather well known name for Webhosting service; is constrained to limitation of Adult contents.
I understand that with high traffics, more resources would be required to support the bandwidth. However, your justification on Adult content has nothing to do with the issues of Homosexuality.
 
Legally, when you've engaged a client, as a full contract being enforced, you're abided to discharge your obligation to provide the services that you had given. Having a short notice; whilst acknowledging your unavailability to host Homosexuality (not Adult) subjects is not part of the deal. With this, you still owe your duty to service your client reasonably.
 
Having said that Adult contents drive higher bandwidth, I totally disagree with this. The amount of traffic entries are based on the popularity of the site, and has absolutely nothing to do with Adult contents. Furthermore, Homosexuality issues are not really exploited to drive such popularity on the web. I'm more inclined to see your policy removal on the subject of Homosexuality.
 
What exactly do you filter on HOMOSEXUALITY? The words "Homosexual, Gay, Lesbian, Intergender Relationship, Fagot, Bapuk" filtered from your server(if the words got thru your email, what's the worse if can do to your server?" ?????? How exactly are these words oriented as Adult contents? Don't you need to tell your children/nieces/grandsons when you see a Gay or Lesbian that they are Gay/Lesbian?? What do you call them in more children-friendly words?
 
What exactly is adult contents to you? Naked babies on Johnson and Johnson's Baby Shampoo advertisement is R-rated to you?
 
There shouldn't be any limitation placed on internet. It is not bounded by the country, hence, you're not entitled to restrict anyone to place adult contents- especially Homosexual subjects (if that's adult contents to you).
 
I personally hope that your 'esteemed' webhosting services would continue to pursue freedom of contents/writing for everyone. Not just to a particular group of clients, but to the entire world population. You owe a duty of care to the world for freedom of speech. By breaching this duty of care, you're denying anyone to speak freely. Ultimately, when education is in concern, you're negligently denying anyone a chance to be educated; even by adult contents.
 
Homosexuals have their rights too. Who are you to deny their rights to speak freely?
 
I need you to explain to the public regarding your policy. You owe a duty to apologize publicly not only to your clients, but also public internet users and Homosexuals on your discriminatory policies.
 
Please act accordingly. Thank You.
 
Regards,
Gordon Lim C.K.
 
Entrepreneur
 

Following that, Ben who heads, of course, Ben's Bitches (and is Rafil's bandmate in PandaHeadCurry):

Dear Mr Ooi and Ms Chan

I am a proud herosexual (that's right, hero and not heterosexual).

I would just like to say that in reality, homos and homophobes such as superstar carpet-munching blogger Lainie Yeoh and evil oil & gas manboar Rafil Elyas do actually get along very well and even give each other friendly headbutts on certain occasions.

So what's the big deal? We should concentrate our efforts on eradicating the real threat to the peace and harmony of the human race..... Barack Obama. This swine is a direct descendant of Loki, the God of Mischief and if he were to become President of the US of A-holes, then we can all look forward to a hell on earth of biblical proportions.

Chocolate dip anyone?

Ben Liew
Subang Jaya Herosexual

Now I don't have all the replies from Exabytes for two reasons. They don't reply to everyone (mine is still unattended to), and instead of "reply to all", they've been replying individually, so we're blindsided from their answers. (CK forwarded me his).

Jac SM Kee has also been in contact with Exabytes:

Without prejudice

Mr Chan, Mr Ooi and whomever else it may concern,

As you are aware of, your email and policy regarding restriction of "adult content" in your web hosting services have received some publicity and notoriety in various civil society and concerned citizen communities.

I am writing as an individual, likewise concerned citizen as well as advocate of communication rights, particularly in ICT.
Your policy puzzles me on several accounts. Although I can appreciate your worries about bandwidth limitations and blocked IPs, I fail to understand your logic in conflating adult content with content related to "gays and lesbians". On your website, the policy does not specifically mention lesbian, gay, or any other form of diverse sexualities materials (henceforth referred to as LGBT) as constitutive of "adult content". Yet in your explanation, this is reiterated over and over again (see your emails appended below).

As mentioned to you by several other concerned civil society members, this irrevocably constitutes a form of discrimination; in national laws, the constitution as well as in universal human rights standards and conventions. By specifying a particular community and all activities, issues, forms of expression and communication as being prohibited, you are placing Exa Bytes as a sudden, unaccountable, and I am sorry to say, illegitimate arbiter, judge and gatekeeper of what kind of information is available and enabled through the internet.

There are multiple and extremely diverse forms of content related to LGBT materials. You yourself are aware of this by explicitly citing several examples. Kindly explain how "LGBT-friendly establishments, lifestyle or events, clubs, restaurants, cafes, anecdotes, meetups" is taken to mean the following:

    * Any site whose revenue is gained in part or whole from its adult content.
    * Photos or videos showing frontal nudity on either men or women for non-scientific or non-artistic purposes.
    * Hyperlinks to adult sites, including but not limited to sites who violate these policies.
    * Sites that have discussion boards and share information that is ‘adult’ in nature.
    * Sites that sell or promote ‘adult’ material, including but not limited to adult toys.

Specifically, it would be beneficial if you can articulate what you mean by "adult" in nature and in material. Do you mean anything that expressly and directly speaks about sexual intercourse, or mentions the penis, vagina or any other sexual and reproductive organs? If so, will you also prohibit websites by non-governmental organisations that works on women's sexual and reproductive health issues, such as the Asian-Pacific Resource and Research Centre for Women (http://www.arrow.org.my/) and Women's Aid Organisation (WAO)?

By your own lack of clarity, and by arbitrarily clumping diverse content related to sexuality - from health, to behaviour, to community, to identity, to networking, to lifestyle to etc - into one convenient category of "adult content", you are putting yourself in a highly risky position.

I appreciate the fact that as a private profit-driven company, there are certain objectives you need to meet, and affirming fundamental civil rights is in great probability, not part of your project. However, I need to remind you that private companies are also subjected to the rule of law, and the rule of law is circumscribed through the collective acknowledgment and affirmation of the boundaries of individual and societal rights.

Many private sector companies are one of the negotiating stakeholders in global policy agendas around content regulation of the internet. For example, Microsoft is very active and present in policy platforms and processes such as the World Summit on Information Society and the Internet Governance Forum. However, they present their case through sound arguments, empirical data, and due consideration to the impact on the rights to expression, information, association and so on. And through intensive dialogue with other stakeholders like civil society (or in your case, consumers/clients/customers) and the government.

I would urge you to do the same. Do not assume that everyone will agree with you that LGBT related content is synonymous with pornography - this is not only erroneous, it is an overt form of discrimination. And do not make broad stroke moral assertions that "Many people do not want to be associated with adult content, based on personal opinions and beliefs" without first even adequately defining what you mean by "adult content", and without conducting appropriate processes to confirm that this is indeed the collective value and priority of your intended audience.

Looking forward to your response.

With regards,
Jac sm Kee

Hello Jac,

Thank you for your feedback.

We have being practising No Adult Content Policy since the first day we run our hosting business. However, due to numbers of web sites hosted by us, we might have overlooked sometime. Therefore, we have just send out reminder to our client on this.

You may refer to our annocement here:
https://support.exabytes.com/index.php?_m=news&_a=viewnews&newsid=370

We do not mean to discriminate gay and lesbian at any attempt. We are only giving some example on what are considered as adult content for reference for our client to avoid confusion. But this has somehow create more confusion especially on the topic of gay and lesbian.

Exabytes as a responsible Malaysia based web hosting company, we only can host and support web sites which are legal and not violating any Malaysia’s laws.

If you have any enquiries, please do not hesitate to contact. Thank You!

Ooi PY
--------------------
Customer Service Manager
Exa Bytes Network Sdn Bhd

Web: http://www.exabytes.com | http://www.exabytes.com.my
Helpdesk: http://support.exabytes.com

Hello Ooi,

It seems like you missed the point in my previous email. So let me try again in simpler and briefer terms.

Why is every single material related to gays and lesbians considered adult content?

And Ooi, by prohibiting gay and lesbian content as adult content without  reasonable and acceptable justifications, you do mean to discriminate gays and lesbians, and you have.

Looking forward to your response.

Regards,
Jac sm Kee

Hello Jac,

Thank you for your further clarifications. Your feedbacks are valuable to us.

Certainly we will reconsider and review our terms and conditions and make it as clearer as possible and avoid any vague, as well as any terms which sounds discriminating to "gay and lesbian". I will seek further advice from my lawyer.

Once again, thank you and the community for providing the feedbacks and helpful information.

Hello Chan,

Thank you for your commitment to review the terms and conditions of Exabytes. I would urge that in your review:

* to strongly reconsider Exabytes role and responsibility as a gatekeeper of acceptable content through prohibition and remove your limitations;

However, if you still decide to enforce limitations:

* to be highly aware of and avoid any attempts to name specific communities or groups, especially already disadvantaged groups
* to explicitly clarify, define and state what you mean by "adult content", and what would fall within this purview (e.g. if pornographic, say pornographic and what pornographic means);
* to fully understand your legal role and responsibility for implementing such a condition;
* to clearly explain your reasons and justifications, including supporting evidence from your constituents/clients/audience;
* to clearly state review process - who is involved in deciding if a particular site falls within "adult content", when and how this limitation will be reconsidered, and so on.

I would appreciate it if you inform me of any changes in your TOR in the future.

Thank you.

Regards,
Jac sm Kee

The GenderGenres mailing list has also picked up on this issue, and some are going to boycott Exabytes as a result. Certain other members of organisations (eg: IWRAW and CIJ Malaysia) have been made aware of this. Need I really mention I'm going to be keeping an eye on this?

It took Exabytes that long to realise that if they'd been deflecting blame onto Malaysian law, they should at least consult their lawyer?

Other blogs that have discussed the Exabytes issue:

Sashi-isms: Exabytes: Should I go back?

Naoko (Broken Shield and Sword): Exabytes: Good Prod, Bad Language?

This is a long post, much love to you if you've read this far. I have just a bit more for you:

Alternative webhosts to Exabytes:

IPServerOne

Integricity

e-Ruang.com

IP Network Connections

If you know of a decent webhost whose name is not Exabytes, now's the time to pimp it.

No webhost is without its criticisms, including Exabytes (and I'm not just talking about this LGBT discrimination issue either). These were some alternatives suggested to me, feel free to browse for one who meets your conditions.

This was actually supposed to be a post to show Joyce the Kinkybluefairy's new project, Tongue in Chic, some love. Next time then. Siao punye Exabytes and their discriminations.

Technorati tags: lgbt, policy, queer, gay, discrimination, censorship, internet, homophobia, malaysia,