Iran Suspends Google's Email Service

appl_iran writes "Iran's telecommunications agency announced that it would be suspending Google's email services permanently, saying it would roll out its own national email service." From the short WSJ article that is kernel of this Reuters story: "An Iranian official said the measure was meant to boost local development of Internet technology and to build trust between people and the government." Funny way to go about that. Updated 20100211 9:54GMT by timothy: Original link swapped for a more appropriate, updated one.

Comments

China lead the way.

[eparker05]

"to build trust between people and government"

Because, as China has shown, censoring communication is the fastest and easiest way to built trust. Go Iran!

Build trust?

[Enderandrew]

Is this the same Irani government which torturers people to try and gain Facebook passwords so they can better track groups who want to discuss politics freely?

Forcing users to use a government monitored service doesn't sound like something that would build trust. It sounds like a move to crush dissent.

Re:Build trust?

[_Sprocket_]

Those of us in the US will understand the language. Iran has a central, government email system to build trust. We have the PATRIOT Act to protect freedom.

Re:Build trust?

[RingDev]

So because politicians in both of the major US parties agree that something is good, it is there for irrefutably good?

Because other people have it worse than us means that we shouldn't fight against oppression in our own country?

Soap, Ballot, Jury, Ammo. The four boxes of freedom. You sir, are standing right next to the GP's 1st box.

-Rick

Re:Build trust?

[Enderandrew]

While I believe that almost every politician is motivated by dollar signs, I don't believe everyone in Congress is evil.

Having met several politicians who I believe actually have some principles (crazy thought!) I can't believe the bill would pass vote after vote if it were truly so evil.

For years I've asked people to back up their claims. Tell me what specifically is evil. Tell me what specific beef you have with it.

I might just agree with you. I might actually make it a personal crusade and contact some politicians myself to express my concerns with it.

However, since no one ever does back up these claims of how evil the Patriot Act is, I'm left to believe this is mostly empty rhetoric. I have zero interest in buzz words thrown around.

I grew tired of Chicken Littles telling me that if you said anything anti-government you'd be thrown in jail. The government is monitoring us all and controlling us all!

Funny, because for everyone who speaks out against the US government, nothing ever happens to any of them. Keith Olberman specifically said he was concerned that his wife would disappear in a black van if he spoke out against the government, despite the fact that he ripped the US government on a NIGHTLY basis on national television. Nothing ever happened.

Maybe, just maybe, we don't have this evil, oppressive government that everyone claims.

We are FAR from perfect. But we're not Big Brother either.

Re:Build trust?

[gerddie]

He isn't just talking about regime change. He's talking about the destruction of the state - that's clear.

Care to elaborate, because the Guardian article I linked to explains quite well that he did not, at least not in that speech.

And besides, there are videos of Ahmadinejad leading chants of "Death to the Jews."

In the video I found he said "Death to Israel" (well, that's what the subtitles say - since I don't understand Farsi I am only sure that the sentence includes "Israel"). This is of course different from "Death to all Jews" and somewhat in line with Iran's policy of not recognizing the state Israel.

Since the real question was whether "Iran calls for the extermination of all Jews (like Hitler did)" I'd summarize that they don't.

Remark 1: I don't want to defend Ahmadinejad (he doesn't have much power anyway, because the power is with the clerics), and there are a lot of reasons to criticize the Iran (human rights, freedom of speech et al.), but claiming that they want to start a genocide is something I can not let pass unchallenged. Besides, the Iran has also a very long history of not starting wars.

Remark 2: IMO the state Israel has every right to exist, but I don't agree with their current politics towards the Palestinians.

Well of course

[Sycraft-fu]

They are an extremely oppressive government, of course their goal is to crush dissent. Goes double since they are rather worried now since there was a big uprising recently over the rigged elections.

However, something you'll also discover about many oppressive government is they love lying. They are so used to the idea that their official word is "the truth" that they lie all the time and seem to think everyone, including other countries, will believe the bullshit. Hence they don't tell their people, or the world, that this is to crush dissent, they make up BS about trying to build trust.

We've seen it all before in many other oppressive places, and I'm sure we'll see it all again.

Re:Well of course

[v1]

I think it's also more a case of they lie, you know they lie, they know you know they lie, and they DON'T CARE.

Not much you can do at that point besides feel sorry for their citizens. It's a waste of time to catch someone in a lie that doesn't care if you catch the lie.

Reminds me so much of 1984... back when the book was written, most of what went on was considered so absurd no one could possibly have tolerated it to let it get that far, but now look here at how governments can get away with it and even manage to make it grow.

Re:Well of course

[Grishnakh]

"A proper global government"? You say that like it's a desirable thing. If we had a global government, we'd have to give equal footing to leaders from places like Somalia, Sudan, China, Zimbabwe, Libya, Cuba, Venezuela, etc. These are places where people do NOT value freedom or human rights. Even worse, you'd have all the Islamic nations pressing for worldwide laws against anything they deem "immoral". We have enough problems here in the USA with fundamentalist Christians trying to push their morals on us.

You can't have "global government" and then only allow Western nations to have all the power. If you include everyone in the government, you have to give equal power to everyone. And I don't want uncivilized savages from the Middle East having any kind of say about what goes on in my life.

Re:WTF?

[canajin56]

Why not boost local development of Internet technology by finding projects that weren't already solved 15 years ago?

Because if you force everybody to use iranmail instead of gmail, you can read everything they email?

HTTPS

[ink]

It's because Google recently moved gmail to HTTPS. It was an option before, but now its mandatory. Someone's email snooper device stopped working in Iran's ministry of snooping^H^H^H^H^H^H truth, and they threw a fit. Then their prophet-dude probably received a revelation that the country needs it's own "Islamic" email system to be rid of the heathens... etc., etc.

Neither -- it's countering demonstrations

[Chris Burke]

It is neither an empty threat, nor foreshadowing of an attack on Israel (or any other country).

The "punch" is going to be Revolutionary Guard, Basij Islamic militia, and regular police taking to the streets to violently oppress the peaceful opposition protesters who will also be taking to the streets on the anniversary of the Islamic Revolution, which is Feb. 11. They will thus stun the opposition, and indirectly "the West" who the Iranian government claims is responsible for organizing the protesters.

The BBC article gets it right. The WorldNetDaily article and your post are piles of FUD-mongering dung.

What, is crushing a peaceful pro-democracy movement by killing its own citizens in the name of peace not bad enough for you?

Amnesty International, on The Patriot Act

[tlambert]

"Amnesty International is concerned that the USA PATRIOT Act:

- Creates a broad definition of "domestic terrorism" that may have a chilling effect on the U.S. and international rights to free expression and association.
- Allows non-citizens to be detained without charge and held indefinitely once charged.
- Infringes on the right to privacy and removes many types of judicial review over intelligence activities."

http://www.amnestyusa.org/war-on-terror/civil-rights/page.do?id=1108209 ...excuse me if I trust these guys more than your anecdotal experience with unidentified politicians.

-- Terry