This is why the Internet shouldn’t be America-centric

Or rather one country-centric. The e-mail services of Hotmail and Yahoo have been stopped in Iran and this means you cannot use these e-mail services even if you have got nothing to do with nuclear or Islamic politics. Of course one may argue that very often you have to pay for living in a specific region or a particular country; but that is not the argument. It’s really stupid that just because America does not agree with Iran’s nuclear policy the citizens of Iran cannot use Hotmail and Yahoo (not that they are greatly e-mail services but they are quite prevalent). This means if one day the American government has some differences with the Indian government all the Hotmail and Yahoo users won’t be able to access their e-mail and I think that is pretty shady.

I think the Internet is too America-centric and the other countries should develop ways to access the Internet in case the American government decides to block those countries. Regarding e-mail, it is better to use either a private domain or you should take regular backups and also have an alternative ready.

I understand that international restrictions and embargoes are meant to force the citizens to speak up against the policies of their respective governments but only those people suffer who have got nothing to do with the problem — the real troublemakers are anyway not affected because they can easily avail alternative means.