Web Hosting
One can find just about anything on the Internet these days. That means not only sites devoted to good, but some questionable sites that might go against the laws of human morality.
Whether e-commerce or informational, what should a cheap web hosting company be doing to ensure they stick by its values and morals? Should they be doing anything at all? Although some might find it appalling, there is something positive in the fact that the Internet is for the most part a largely uncensored entity.
Web Hosting: The Problem With Morality
The hard truth: each person has a different moral code based on their own personal belief system. What one finds morally unacceptable might be just fine in another person's mind. That's the tough part — deciding which sites to host and which sites to refuse.
Obviously, it makes sense for a web hosting company advertising Christian-based services to choose not to host adult sites. But should the average, everyday site ban this type of content? They can, but they don't have to.
It is up to users to investigate for themselves if they stand behind the morals of the company they are researching by searching the SLA for details as to what type of content can be hosted.
What Should Web Hosting Companies Be Concerned About?
While most companies won't need to worry about the type of content they are hosting unless they are a niche web hosting company and a certain site would go against the morals of that specific niche, there is really only one way to be morally and ethically responsible as a web hosting company: don't lie to your customers.
If you say you offer 24/7 support with lightning fast response time, you need to actually provide it! If you say you have 99.9% downtime but actually go down quite often, you are breaking the only moral and ethical rule. Customers want the truth, and as the old saying goes: the truth will come out in the end!
Save yourself from being slammed in numerous online web hosting forums and tell the truth at the outset. Your customers will appreciate it! Honesty is truly the best policy.
Web Hosting: Other Considerations
Of course, there are other ways to be morally responsible. You can choose to be an environmentally friendly web hosting company, appealing to the segment of the population that feels strongly about that. Maybe you root for the little guy, and decide to offer web hosting services to nonprofits for a reduced rate.
If you're a niche site, it's perfectly acceptable to turn down websites with content that goes against what you stand for in your company's mission statement.
But if every web hosting company were to turn down these questionable sites, could the Internet be referred to as “the information superhighway” as it has been in the past? No. When you filter all content everywhere, it becomes censorship, and that has always been the most wonderful thing about the Internet: the variety of the content.
Web Hosting: The Bottom-line
People like to come across sites that have belief systems similar to their own. However, as these belief systems vary, it is imperative they all coexist together on the wonderful World Wide Web.
As long as you are honest with your customers and offer them quality web hosting services, that should be the only thing that matters.
