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Siemens, Nokia Helped Provide Iran's Censoring Tech

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the well-that's-not-very-nice dept.

An anonymous reader writes "The Wall Street Journal has an article about Nokia and Siemens selling the censoring technology to Iran's government. Do you believe that the public relations damage to these companies can persuade them from selling this kind of technology to other dictatorial regimes?" I don't believe there will *be* any PR Damage, and that makes me a little sad.

2 of 280 comments (clear)

  1. Remember South African apartheid? by tepples · · Score: 5, Informative

    Why single out Iran? Are you saying Nokia shouldn't operate in Iran; they should break the law there; what?

    I'm guessing a lot of people reading this have the former in mind: information technology companies in the industrialized world shouldn't operate in countries that place restrictions on political speech to the extent seen in the countries on which the United States already has sanctions. In the 1980s, near the end of South Africa's counterpart to the U.S. "Jim Crow" era, there was an effort to boycott companies that did business in South Africa: disinvestment was a result.

  2. Re:Hell NO! They'll Probably Use As A Selling Poin by aembleton · · Score: 5, Informative

    Correct, according to this article from the BBC:
    "Western governments, including the UK, don't allow you to build networks without having this functionality."