NearlyFreeSpeech is a privately funded, US-based, low cost web hosting provider and

domain name registrar A domain name registrar is a company that manages the reservation of Internet domain names. A domain name registrar must be accredited by a generic top-level domain (gTLD) registry or a country code top-level domain (ccTLD) registry. A registrar ...

that began in 2002. It was started in response to concerns about the entry of large companies into Internet

publishing Publishing is the activity of making information, literature, music, software and other content available to the public for sale or for free. Traditionally, the term refers to the creation and distribution of printed works, such as books, newsp ...

, and to promote

freedom of speech Freedom of speech is a principle that supports the freedom of an individual or a community to articulate their opinions and ideas without fear of retaliation, censorship, or legal sanction. The right to freedom of expression has been recogni ...

History

In September 2006, Jeffrey D. Wheelhouse registered the NearlyFreeSpeech trademark.

Endorsements

By 2008,

Michael Hemmingson Michael Hemmingson (July 12, 1966 – January 9, 2014) was a novelist, short story writer, literary critic, cultural anthropologist, qualitative researcher, playwright, music critic and screenwriter. He died in Tijuana, Mexico on 9 January 2 ...

San Diego Reader The ''San Diego Reader'' is an alternative press newspaper in the county of San Diego San Diego ( , ; ) is a city on the Pacific Ocean coast of Southern California located immediately adjacent to the Mexico–United States border. With a ...

wrote that the

Electronic Frontier Foundation The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) is an international non-profit digital rights group based in San Francisco, California. The foundation was formed on 10 July 1990 by John Gilmore, John Perry Barlow and Mitch Kapor to promote Internet ci ...

suggested using services such as NearlyFreeSpeech.net and

Tor Tor, TOR or ToR may refer to: Places * Tor, Pallars, a village in Spain * Tor, former name of Sloviansk, Ukraine, a city * Mount Tor, Tasmania, Australia, an extinct volcano * Tor Bay, Devon, England * Tor River, Western New Guinea, Indonesia Sc ...

software to avoid being fired for

blog A blog (a truncation of "weblog") is a discussion or informational website published on the World Wide Web consisting of discrete, often informal diary-style text entries (posts). Posts are typically displayed in reverse chronological order ...

ging. In 2009 Shawn Powers of

Linux Journal ''Linux Journal'' (''LJ'') is an American monthly technology magazine originally published by Specialized System Consultants, Inc. (SSC) in Seattle, Washington since 1994. In December 2006 the publisher changed to Belltown Media, Inc. in Houston ...

reviewed Nearly Free Speech and recommended them over

GoDaddy GoDaddy Inc. is an American publicly traded Internet domain registrar and web hosting company headquartered in Tempe, Arizona, and incorporated in Delaware. , GoDaddy has more than 21 million customers and over 6,600 employees worldwide. The co ...

even after having some technical issues. In 2010 Jason Fitzpatrick of

LifeHacker ''Lifehacker'' is a weblog about life hacks and software that launched on January 31, 2005. The site was originally launched by Gawker Media and is currently owned by G/O Media. The blog posts cover a wide range of topics including: Microsoft W ...

.com listed Nearly Free Speech as first of "Five Best Personal Web Hosts" and said they were unusual because of their incremental billing based on usage. In a similar 2012 "top five" list by Alan Henry of LifeHacker.com, Nearly Free Speech was given "honorable mention" and he said they offer exceptional hosting plans for as low as $0.25, and promise to only make you pay for what you use. In 2010 in "

Twitter Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...

Application Development For Dummies", Dusty Reagan recommended Nearly Free Speech for learning

PHP PHP is a general-purpose scripting language geared toward web development. It was originally created by Danish-Canadian programmer Rasmus Lerdorf in 1993 and released in 1995. The PHP reference implementation is now produced by The PHP Group ...

development. In 2010 Cody Fink of MacStories.net, describing how to install Fever in 10 minutes, called Nearly Free Speech, "an amazing hosting solution that's relatively cheap, especially for light use." In 2012 in "Handbook of Research on Didactic Strategies and Technologies for Education" Nearly Free Speech was cited as a "pay as you go" service, which could reduce costs significantly. In 2013, Nearly Free Speech was used for a low-cost promotion involving the posting of indie Zelda-alike game '' Anodyne'' on

The Pirate Bay The Pirate Bay (sometimes abbreviated as TPB) is an online index of digital content of entertainment media and software. Founded in 2003 by Swedish think tank Piratbyrån, The Pirate Bay allows visitors to search, download, and contribute mag ...

Controversies

BugMeNot controversy

In 2004 Matt Hines of

CNET ''CNET'' (short for "Computer Network") is an American media website that publishes reviews, news, articles, blogs, podcasts, and videos on technology and consumer electronics globally. ''CNET'' originally produced content for radio and televi ...

said Nearly Free Speech supported

BugMeNot BugMeNot is an Internet service that provides usernames and passwords to let Internet users bypass mandatory free registration on websites. It was started in August 2003 by an anonymous person, later revealed to be Guy King, and allowed Internet ...

against take-down attempts. Kevin Newcomb of clickz.com wrote that Texas-based NearlyFreeSpeech.net spokesman Jeff Wheelhouse said, "NearlyFreeSpeech.NET supports and defends the free expression rights of www.bugmenot.com and all our members to the very limit of its terms of service." BugMeNot's move to the Nearly Free Speech provider, which also hosts a number of highly controversial sites, prompted BugMeNot's creator to say, "Personally, I don't care if I'm sharing a server with neo-Nazis. I might not agree with what they have to say, but the whole thing about freedom of speech is that people are free to speak."

Badger Killers website controversy

In 2012, Kelly Fiveash of

The Register ''The Register'' is a British technology news website co-founded in 1994 by Mike Magee, John Lettice and Ross Alderson. The online newspaper's masthead sublogo is "''Biting the hand that feeds IT''." Their primary focus is information tec ...

said US-based hosting firm Nearly Free Speech resisted UK government attempts to take down the Badger-Killers website, which had personal details of persons deemed to be

badger cull Badger culling in the United Kingdom is permitted under licence, within a set area and timescale, as a way to reduce badger numbers in the hope of controlling the spread of bovine tuberculosis (bTB). Humans can catch bTB, but public health cont ...

supporters, including politicians, farmers and professors.

Alt-right and other controversies

In 2017, Ali Breland of

theHill ''The Hill'' is an American newspaper and digital media company based in Washington, D.C. that was founded in 1994. Focusing on politics, policy, business and international relations, ''The Hill''s coverage includes the U.S. Congress, the presid ...

.com described how NearlyFreeSpeech's commitment was tested in the 2012 badger culling website case. She also quoted the CEO of

alt-right The alt-right, an abbreviation of alternative right, is a far-right, white nationalist movement. A largely online phenomenon, the alt-right originated in the United States during the late 2000s before increasing in popularity during the mid-2 ...

Twitter alternative Gab, who said that NearlyFreeSpeech might be a "safe haven" for his website after their web host gave them five days to transfer their domain. In 2017 in ''Media Law, Ethics, and Policy in the Digital Age'', NearlyFreeSpeech's policy of not shutting down site services without a

court order A court order is an official proclamation by a judge (or panel of judges) that defines the legal relationships between the parties to a hearing, a trial, an appeal or other court proceedings. Such ruling requires or authorizes the carrying out o ...

made them the hosting choice for Crocels News after other services shutdown their services during a

defamation Defamation is the act of communicating to a third party false statements about a person, place or thing that results in damage to its reputation. It can be spoken (slander) or written (libel). It constitutes a tort or a crime. The legal defini ...

dispute. In 2019 in ''Technical Blogging: Amplify Your Influence'', Antonio Cangiano "wholeheartedly" recommended Nearly Free Speech as registrar and webhost for controversial content. In January 2021, NearlyFreeSpeech published a statement on their response to a surge in business and communications from "racists." The statement was intended to clarify their positions on "free speech," refusal to host illegal content, careful cooperation with law enforcement, and opposition of racism, hatred and bigotry.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:NearlyFreeSpeech Employee-owned companies of the United States Web hosting File hosting Domain name registrars Cloud platforms Internet properties established in 2002