The Internet has introduced a dislocated sense of legal jurisdiction, in some cases the problem of applying one countries laws to a different jurisdiction is not a new conception. Over time many countries have developed contracts, treaties and agreements with other states governing extradition of individuals who are wanted for breach of one country's legal code but are currently residing in another country.
There have been a number of cases in the last decade ranging from extremely high profile, Julian Assange and Edward Snowden, to limited attention paid, [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gary_McKinnon| Gary McKinnion].
In many countries a core weapon used for censorship, oppression and repression is the judiciary and the enacting or novel use of laws designed to restrict freedoms. This is a very effective tactic and the results can be seen in countries such as Vietnam where a number of individuals have been tried for publishing material consider by the authorities to be illegal; either because of content - deemed anti-governmental - or method of publishing - publication under pseudonyms.
This can be hampered in part by the use of intermediary resellers. For example, in the case of Cambodia hosting platforms are located outside of the country, however, access to these services is done through local resellers who are subject to Cambodian law. These resellers are chosen largely for language and immediacy of access to support.
In determining the current laws that are applied or may be applied to your work or your locale there are a number of resources provided by monitoring groups that can be used as a starting point. This information is far from complete and is often only able to report on what legal tools have been used in the past.
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[http://defendersdays.civilrightsdefenders.org/ Civil Rights Defenders]
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[http://www.iltb.net/ Indian Law and Technology blog]
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[http://www.openrightsgroup.org/ Open Rights Group]
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[https://supporters.eff.org/ Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF)]
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[https://www.cpj.org/ Committee to protect Journalists]
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[http://freedomhouse.org/ Freedom House]
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[http://witness.org/ Witness]
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[http://www.frontlinedefenders.org/ Frontline Defenders]
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[http://www.lwob.org/Pages/Default.aspx Lawyers without Borders]
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[https://iscproject.org/country-assessments/ ISC Project]
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Many countries have specialised legal aide and free legal advice centres that can be contacted to help determine what laws may apply to your work
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</ol>
==Geographic Areas==
If your provider has a history of discontinuing service to activists, journalist or civil society groups, or request that they self censor - then it is important to establish this at the outset. It is necessary to determine with your provider what content they might prohibit or what rules govern the extent to which they will support activists in publishing their work.
There are already a number of service providers that aim to support the activists, NGO and non-profit world. Amongst them are [https://greenhost.net/about-us/| Green Host], [https://help.riseup.net/en/about-us| Riseup] and [https://leap.se/en/about-us| Leap].