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Iran to Filter 'Immoral' Mobile Messages
jb.cancer noted an article running on eweek about plans in Iran to censor phone messages sent within the country. At least it's not quite that bad here yet. But give it a few years!
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There are shills on slashdot. Apparently, I'm one of them.
What, exactly, would make the poster think that it would be possible that text messages in the US would be filtered for content? Has the US censored IMs, phone conversations, e-mail, or any other means of communication, or is this just the nebulous political FUD we've had to endure for so long?
Hmmm ... sounds like the anti-SPAM filters for email.
With the right language and some "ad hoc" grammar mistakes you could foolish the filter.
Maybe Computers will never be as intelligent as Humans.
For sure they won't ever become so stupid. [VR-1988]
Dear aunt, let's set so double the killer delete select all.
The simple truth is that interstellar distances will not fit into the human imagination
- Douglas Adams
At least it's not quite that bad here yet. But give it a few years!
What country are YOU posting from? There is hardly ANYTHING censored in the US- and yes, I recognize that you are attempting sarcasm, but it's rather pathetic. There are several dozen things that I wish were censored, but aren't, and that's a good thing too.
And yes, you can be executed in Iran if you perform Immoral Activities. Shall we wait for that to come to a US City nearest you, too now?
First, they came for the "inappropriate" text messagers. But I did not speak out, because I do not have a cellphone.
Then, they came for the "innapropriate" emailers. But I did not speak out, because I do not use email.
Then, they came for the "innapropriate" web-surfers. But I did not speak out, because I do not surf the web.
Then they came for me - and by then, there was no one left to speak out.
After all, look at the success we have filtering spam adverts for viagra, cialis etc. from our mailboxes.
In a few years you'll still be spouting this sort of paranoid crap, with no censorship taking place.
That sort of loony paranoia doesn't boost your side's credibility, any more than my side was helped by predictions that Bill Clinton would use FEMA regs to declare a national emergency and establish a dictatorship, or the right-wing paranoids who referred to the Oklahoma City bombing as "Bill Clinton's Reichstag Fire".
Why don't you focus on REAL government abuses instead? For example, the "if you have lots of cash then you must be a drug dealer" lunacy known as "Civil Asset Forfeiture", or the suppression of free speech in the name of "Campaign Finance Reform"?
Spammers work by making grammar and spelling errors that people recognize anyway. However, in the long list of countries that tried press censorship in the 20th century, all failed because there's always innuendo, sarcasm, satire, etc.
There was a joke in the Soviet Union that went like this: a man is arrested because he was shouting in the street "that man is a disgrace, he made everybody suffer" and so on. In the KGB station he was questioned about who he had been shouting against. "Why, Hitler, of course!" was the answer. The KGB agents apologized and released him. When he was getting out the door, he asked "hey, by the way, who did you think I was speaking about?"
Unless the government controls the publishing hardware, there's no way they can stop people from using double entendre.
Granted the submitter is trying to imply it will happen in the United States but I still ask, why does it matter to us what Iran chooses for messages in its own country?
It a repressive regime, what are we to expect? Does it violate their own laws? If there is an international law being violated do you really think they care? Its their country, let them govern it as they see fit. No one is losing their life over filtering.
Stop applying our standards to those in the rest of the world. There are things we take for granted many people never had, never wiil, and some probably don't want. Oh I am sure anyone can list a bunch of things ala Strawman style to refute that claim. It still comes down to, its their country, no one is losing their life over it.
* Winners compare their achievements to their goals, losers compare theirs to that of others.
But it has luckily been fairly resistant to attacks. Both major parties are equally guilty of this. In the Clinton years, you had Tipper Gore wanting to apply "Explicit" labels to records and the DMCA, which prevents one from disseminating fairly obvious bits of knowledge. Under Bush, you have more of the same.
However, it's been a long time since I've seen a congressional hearing about anything that didn't have a member of Code Pink or some other lefty organization visible in the audience, covered in slogans. If we ever get to the point where they're kicked out before they start yelling and disrupting the proceedings, then I might start to get worried. Until then, this is just the same, tired hyperbole.
I'm so sick of the moronic editor comments here. "give it a few years" ?!
Seriously, come on. Freedom of expression is worth fighting for. It's even worth carping about on slashdot. Abuses should be publicized and not tolerated.
But what good does this hysterical hyperbole do? The difference between media controls in a country like Iran or China is an order of magnitude away from just about any Western country. Apples and oranges. A whole 'nother ballpark. Whatever other trite expression you want. Does anyone REALLY think that censorship of text messages is a few years away?
This nonsense just makes being concerned with freedom of speech/expression/whatever seem like it belongs in the realm of crazy people.
along with women's scarves and men's hair. Your foreign policy is shit, the economy is sliding into the gutter, your best brains are going abroad, your government has worse cronyism than Bush's, what do you do? Have a crack-down on those stylish scarves and some incorrectly trimmed hair. Yeah. That'll get the country right back on track to armageddon the Middle East.
Patriotism is a virtue of the vicious
Censorship in the US works rather differently. Watch Good Night, and Good Luck or look for the interviews with ex-Fox reporters about Monsanto. The government here rarely censors directly, with the exception of things it claims fall under the rubrick of National Security. Instead, most censorship happens according to the interests of major corporations, and isn't government sponsored. A lot of things are also censored almost by default--third party candidates barred from presidential debates, for example. There's a tremendous amount of social, psychological, political, and financial inertia that--while not technically censorship--make it very difficult to spread information or viewpoints that don't conform to the norm. (And the norm, sadly, is generally addressed to the Lowest Common Denominator.)
The censorship in the US is subtle--and of a different kind, so that in a sense it's not really censorship at all. You can still stand on a street corner and talk to the stranger next to you and not worry much about being locked up. Even if the stranger's a cop, or a Fed, for that matter.
(We won't censor the messages, btw. We'll build an enormous super-secret database of them. Is that better or worse than explicit censorship?)
Sure, the elections may be dodgy, but it's democratic.
No, it isn't. You get to vote for a small, carefully vetted group of candidates who have been approved by the mullahs. And even then, all decisions by elected officials can be overridden by the mullahs.
But no, the Western media portray Iran as a country hell bent of destroying the West, destroying Israel (the viewpoint of one politician who doesn't have that power), and evil evil evil.
They are. Listen to the Iranian government. Even the Arab nations are getting scared of Iran.
Holland is known to be tolerant of gays, Amsterdam especially. Yet the word "homo" is a curse word and not a light one either. In english where you call someone a bastard, even a fucking one, in dutch the person is called gay, same for a stupid idiot or a mean person. Gay each and everyone of them.
A transvestite was recently beaten to death and two male newspapers reporters who pretended to be a gay couple found out just how gay people are viewed, especially by that other hated group, muslim immigrants.
And yet, I could take you on a tour and you would see none of this.
Not that it matters. The people of Iran do NOT matter, the goverment that rules them and that they support (through action or inaction does not matter) is what counts on the world stage.
Many americans claim to be against the iraq war, in fact some sources claim the majority. So how exactly was Bush RE-ELECTED, how the fuck did he get elected in the first place and why are there no efforts to stop the war or at least hamper it?
I would have find the article you linked to a great deal more convincing if the reporter had dressed up as a jew. Or if he had been a she and refused to wear a headscarf, notice how ALL the women in the photos wear one?
White male known to be a reporter from britain is shown a positive face of Iran. Wow, yeah, amazing.
Life isn't a bioware RPG you know. There is no physical representation of the "good" or "evil" of a people. I am reasonably postive that death camp guards on their day off do NOT sprout horns and lurk in dungoens and beat foreign reporters to death for fun.
In fact isn't it amazing racist or at least culterists to claim that "Iran's youth wants western fashion therefore they are not our enemy"? Some of the bloodiests wars in histories have between countries that outsiders could not tell apart.
MMO Quests are like orgasms:
You may solo them, I prefer them in a group.
You dont know a jack about iran. Islamic Revolution guards rule that country. They are financial (own many big companies) military ( they have their own military) secret service (of their own) apart from the government. Nothing revolutionary guards organization does not allow passes through. Democratic my butt.
Read radical news here
Sure, the elections may be dodgy, but it's democratic. Nobody seems to like the leaders as they don't represent the people and it's unlikely they'll be in power long. The people are pushing the boundaries in all walks of life. In fact they're far more Western than a country like Turkey. And as for the political situation, it doesn't sound unlike any other Western country - unpopular leadership, dodgy elections, etc.
Yes, the elections are absolutely democratic--if you are ok with the fact that anyone running for any position anywhere--city council, governors, parliament, etc--has to be vetted through non-elected government bodies. Here's an assignment for you--in the last elections (you can check either I believe december or 2005 elections that brought Ahmadi-Nejad to power) find out how many candidates were BARRED from running. It's unlikely they'll be in power long? Possibly the most radically conservative government since the Revolution was brought to power two years ago. The reformists have suffered massive losses across the country. The most recent elections saw less radical conservatives, but conservatives nonetheless make large gains. Let's be clear: when we say conservatives in the case of Iran we mean Islamists, very frequently clerics, and more and more frequently army former army officers. Nothing wrong with any of those things, but they are all groups deepy vested in the status quo, and maintaining the Islamic Republic as it stands.
They're far more Western than Turkey? ok, now this is where you absolutely lose credibility. I can only assume after this that you're basing 100% of your knowledge off the above article. Iran is "The Islamic Republic of Iran." It has an unelected body of clerics that more or less rule the country--they certaintly hold the leash on any elected officials. They have things like morality police. Women showing too much hair is a crime. Now, how exactly is Iran more "Western" than Turkey? I'll be honest, I've never been to Iran though I would love to, and many of my friends have been. I have been to Turkey though, and your comment makes no sense to me.
But no, the Western media portray Iran as a country hell bent of destroying the West, destroying Israel (the viewpoint of one politician who doesn't have that power), and evil evil evil. But in a country with 40% of people under the age of 15, you really don't want to invade badly like in Iraq, and turn them ALL against you for the rest of their lives.
It seems to me that the "Western media" doesn't have to portray Iran that way at all--its (by your reckoning FAIRLY) elected president portrays it that way just fine. Look for some Khamenei quotes (he's the Supreme Leader for life if you don't know)...the power behind it all. 40% of people under the age of 15--that statement might be the closest thing to accurate in your whole post.
Now whilst the article above is but one story that gives an idea of life within Iran, it is counter to the rhetoric and fearmongering that is so popular within our media.
Look, the rich urban elite show their hair, go to university, have parties and sex, love their pizza and hamburgers more than kabab (which I personally don't understand at all!) and probably aren't that happy with the laws and the crackdowns that have been occurring recently. But you know what? They're not the majority. There is a huge urban and rural poor population that is very religious, very devout, very nationalistic, and happy with the Islamic Republic (not so happy with economy and jobs..)
Think of it this way...hang out in downtown NYC, talk to the youth, etc. Now, go to rural Nebraska and talk to the people there. Do you think you are going to get some differences of opinion? Westerners LOVE trotting out the Iranian urban elite as proof that they can be like us too..or something like that.
I used to be hopeful that the Islamic Republic could change. I'm much less so now--the difficulties inherent in the system
Sure, the elections may be dodgy, but it's democratic.
Did you listen to yourself?
If an election is dodgy, it is not democratic. Particularly when opposition members are routinely imprisoned or threatened with same.
(Cue people claiming 2000 or 2004 election in US was dodgy.)
Yes I'm talking about YOU, Taco.
We all love to bash Bush and hate America, often with good reason... but please, at least give it *some* thought and make sure there's at least some shred of evidence before blindly and mindlessly criticizing everything USA.
Freedom of speech and lack of government censorship is one of the few things that America still has the best of, more so than anywhere else - even the wondrous paradise called Europe. Here you can express support for an unpopular political ideology or make fun of a crazy religion and still expect to keep your freedom. Not so in many parts of Europe; you can be arrested for doing just that.
Anyone else find it ridiculous that we're seeing all the reports of how oppressive Iran is to it's people? WHO CARES? Honestly. If the people there didn't like it, and were fed up, they'd fix it. I'm seeing this as a preamble to invasion/attack.
Get everyone talking about how horribly oppressive the government is so they don't feel so bad about blitzing them.
Not happening here.
You're nothing; like me.
RIAA lawsuit: If you...break the law...you can expect a lawsuit, and this is bad? RIAA isn't the government. As far as I know, they haven't sued anyone for _saying_ anything, either. Not too worried.
Campus police? Funny you mention this one... as a matter of fact I DID download many, many things in my undergrad days. I didn't live in fear. In fact, my local LUG hosted a number of torrents.. The "funny you mention" it part comes from the fact that one year someone living exactly one floor above me DID get busted by police--of course he was a highup member of DrinkOrDie (wiki it). again, this is as it should be as far as I can see. I'm not worried about this.
police brutality: again... I just don't know that this is a problem...
Secret service / police chat: this is supposed to be chilling? if that's true, I think we've lost the meaning of the world "chilling." Chilling is having a a little chat with police and then having your parents disappear. Or having a little chat and having some mysteriously broken bones. Chilling is being threatened. Any of those things. I don't think having to explain yourself to some cops after posting threats against the pres--whatever--is chilling.
Iran's censorship is understandable?
In short, I feel NO hesitation to say anything I want. Well, that's not true--I don't feel like saying nonsense such as "I've got a bomb!!!" at an airport or "I've got a plan to kill the President!!!" in front of
I will back off SLIGHTLY and say things aren't perfect--but then again, the people enforcing the laws are just as imperfect as we are. There are bound to be mistakes, stupid, lazy, uninformed, whatever. It only becomes a problem when it's more than this--say, state sanctioned censorship of text msgs.