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Iran May Shut Down Internet During Election

Posted by Zonk on from the can't-stop-the-signal-mal dept.

daveschroeder writes "'The Iranian government might block private access to the Internet for the general legislative election on March 14, two Iranian news outlets reported Monday. In 2006, the authorities banned download speeds on private computers faster than 128 kilobytes per second. The government also uses sophisticated filtering equipment to block hundreds of Web sites and blogs that it considers religiously or politically inappropriate. Many bloggers have been jailed in the past years, and dozens of Web sites have been shut down.' It would appear that Iran's own government is more a threat to the nation's internet connectivity than the fragility of the undersea cable network."

4 of 234 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Absolutely atrocious. by dreamchaser · · Score: 3, Informative

    http://anangrydakotademocrat.blogspot.com/2007/10/obamas-goal-eliminate-all-nuclear.html

    http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/02/us/politics/02obama.html

    As well as a speech he made last week that I cannot find online at the moment. He said 'greatly reduce' at first, then alluded that the US should eliminate them to 'lead the way'.

    Then again, posting truth gets you modded as Flamebait around here.

  2. -1: horseshit by thegnu · · Score: 4, Informative

    This is typical and not too surprising. The nice thing for them is there's no chance of us going to war with either Hillary or Obama in office. They'd have to bomb the capital building... and even then...

    This is bullshit. Hillary has been prowar, except when campaigning. The Clinton administration had a couple war efforts. Obama's foreign policy guy is Brzezinski, who isn't specifically anti-war. Only when it's a terrible, terrible idea.

    Can we not mod up baseless political bullshit from either side? Thanks.
    --
    Please stop stalking me, bro.
  3. What's the big deal? by WH44 · · Score: 3, Informative
    They'll be cutting private internet access for one day, right?

    They make contradictory claims about why, but in the end, it is a one day inconvenience for internet users. The most sinister reason I can think of for them wanting to shut it down is to prevent riots caused by posts alleging election improprieties (real or imagined). Really sinister.

    Am I missing something? What's the big deal?

  4. Re:A few more notes: time for perspective? by FishWithAHammer · · Score: 3, Informative

    The Secretary-General of the UN at the time the resolution was passed, Boutros Boutros-Ghali called the no-fly zones "illegal"

    Need we go over why the United Nations is an unreliable source here?

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oil-for-Food_Programme#Abuse

    How long was it going on? We don't know, but it makes anything the UN says regarding Iraq highly suspect.

    --
    "You can either have software quality or you can have pointer arithmetic, but you cannot have both at the same time."