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Iran Developing 'Halal' Domestic Intranet

Posted by Soulskill on from the taking-their-toys-and-going-home dept.

An anonymous reader writes "The WSJ reports that Iran is beginning a crackdown on Internet use by its citizens, creating new blocks against foreign content and stepping up surveillance of browsing habits. Internet cafes in Iran have 15 days to set up security cameras and start collecting information on customers, and people are finding it increasingly difficult to use social networking sites. The new restrictions are likely being implemented now to head off dissent and protests about the upcoming parliamentary elections. According to the article, 'The network slowdown likely heralds the arrival of an initiative Iran has been readying—a "halal" domestic intranet that it has said will insulate its citizens from Western ideology and un-Islamic culture, and eventually replace the Internet. This week's slowdown came amid tests of the Iranian intranet, according to domestic media reports that cited a spokesman for a union of computer-systems firms. He said the intranet is set to go live within a few weeks.'"

11 of 248 comments (clear)

  1. Okay, that's the U.S. But what about Iran? by elrous0 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    creating new blocks against foreign content and stepping up surveillance of browsing habits

    Sounds familiar for some reason.

    --
    SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
  2. Iran continues its death spiral... by Karmashock · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Why is Iran doing this to itself? It's so needlessly self destructive. Just stop it. Behave yourself, the sanctions will come off, and we can all get along. Aggressive posturing, locking your people off from the world, and developing variants of nuclear technology best able to produce weapons grade material... what is the point of all this? Best case you'll get a bomb and then what? Hundreds of years of MAD as the rest of the world contains you? That sounds like loads of fun. If you just stopped all this we could normalize relations to everyone's benefit.

    --
    I've decided to stop wasting my time responding to AC trolls/sockpuppets... so if you want a response from me... login.
    1. Re:Iran continues its death spiral... by Coeurderoy · · Score: 5, Insightful

      First what is good for the majority of iranian is not necessarely good for the current leadership..
      Second foreign influence in Iran do not have a very good track record, so it is not "that tempting".

      You can look at the situation in North Korea where it's even crazier, but obviously there are enough people benefiting to control the rest.

      And maybe closer to your home: why are the US doing this to itself ? It's so needlessly self destructive. Just stop it. Behave yourelf, you do not need to put 1% of your adult population in prison, and rob the rest of all their saved, current and future cash with shemanigans like subprime financing, inflated student loans, etc.. what is the point of all this ? Best case a couple of manager get more money that they could possible spend in their lifetime, and then what ? Hundreds of years of eroding of civil liberties while the rest of the work shakes it's head ? That sounds like loads of fun. If you stopped all this you could have a nice life and everyone benefit..
      And you know what ... not gonna happen real soon now ...

    2. Re:Iran continues its death spiral... by Moryath · · Score: 5, Insightful

      It's kind of an "in one ear, out the other" thing. Like when you get down into Muslim theology, the concepts of dar al-harb vs dar al-islam, the fact that Mohammed - a rapist, a pedo, not to mention a liar who repeatedly broke treaties - is the idea of the "perfect man" whose example Muslim leaders are expected to follow.

      Nobody wants to believe it when they hear what comes out of the mouths of Iranian leaders, or Palestinian leaders, or Muslim Brotherhood leadership in countries like Syria or Lebanon or Egypt, because it means some pretty awful things. Kind of like how the world didn't want to think that the Nazis were REALLY that bad when Chamberlain was negotiating with them (how'd that turn out again?).

      Personally, I'm not one to believe that all Muslims are bloodthirsty, nor hate-filled. But there are enough of a minority that are to do some really nasty things in the world, and it's a religion in desperate need of something akin to the Protestant Reformation that Christianity went through to inject some much-needed sense and throw out a lot of the nastier stuff.

    3. Re:Iran continues its death spiral... by Moryath · · Score: 5, Interesting

      What Iran is doing progressively is building justification for some sort of military action against them. And morally... they're slowly justifying some sort of strike as well. In effect, they're slowly raising the guillotine blade that when it falls... will at best strike off the head of their nation. At worst, there will be collateral damage.

      You fail to think of it from the perspective of the Mullahs.

      What they are trying to do is get the US to react. To attack Iran, so that they can rally "the Muslim world" into a WW3-type "Islam vs The World" war that they believe to be inevitable and that they believe they will win.

      These are the same assholes who have said, quite publicly and numerous times on record, that if they had access to a nuke they would have absolutely NO problem nuking Tel Aviv, and wouldn't give a crap how many Arabs they killed in Lebanon, Syria, the Palestinian territories, Jordan, and Egypt because their immediate goal of wiping out "the Jews" would be achieved, and there would still be over a billion Muslims in the world.

      The "fine line" being straddled right now in international diplomacy is, how the fuck do you separate Iran from the rest of the Muslims such that when war happens, it doesn't devolve into a religious WW3?

    4. Re:Iran continues its death spiral... by Miamicanes · · Score: 5, Insightful

      > There's no "moderate" Muslims out there- those you think are that are practicing Taqiyaa or they're Apostate.

      Maybe, but that happens to account for the overwhelming majority of them. The fact is, most Muslims are about as religious as most Christians and Jews -- it's cultural background noise they mostly buy into because they grew up surrounded by it, and maybe feel a tiny bit guilty if they don't at least pay lip service to.

      The Bible commands Christians (and Jews) to do lots of silly, abhorrent things for seemingly stupid reasons, and the overwhelming majority of Christians have no problem ignoring the more embarrassing parts. Why is it so difficult to give Muslims the same benefit of doubt? Remember, to an average Turk or urban Egyptian, Americans are foaming-at-the-mouth Jesus-crazed lunatics. Muslim extremists are better at doing global public relations to make support for their cause look widespread, but we have plenty of (nominally) Christian loonies of our own roaming around America.

      Most Americans don't seem to grasp that the Mullahs in Iran are in basically the same legal position as the RIAA/MPAA in America -- they own the courts & run the government, but normal people hate them... especially young Iranians. And attempts by Iranians to fight them are usually about as successful as attempts by Americans to fight the MPAA & RIAA -- lots of skirmishes, occasional random victories, but mostly a trail of personal devastation (cue up John Cougar Mellencamp's "Authority Song").

      The point is, Iran is a very awkward situation. It has a government that's extremely belligerent to the rest of the world, and a populace that's largely powerless to do anything about it because the Mullahs effectively have veto power over everything. The best thing the US can do is to maintain the status quo... kick Iran down every time it gets uncomfortably close to having nuclear bombs, and basically just wait for the Revolution generation to die off and get kicked aside by younger Iranians who'd rather be a secular, nominally-Muslim-ish republic.

      A full-blown nuclear war with Iran would be a horrific human tragedy that would likely wipe Israel (and Tehran, and a dozen or so other cities) completely off the map. Nobody sane wants that to happen. MAD worked against the Soviet Union, because the Soviet Union's leaders were basically sane & shared most of the same goals as their counterparts in America. They didn't want to see their countries get destroyed, and didn't want their families to die in horrible ways.

      The same can't necessarily be said about Iran. I personally think Ahmadinejad just wants to have a big nuclear penis to wave in front of Israel's face, and that he personally wouldn't go through with a suicidal attack that would likely result in the deaths of a quarter of Iran's population... but the big danger is that whomever *replaces* him after he tells the Mullahs, "Erm, no. I'm not going to go through with it" might not be quite as secretly-sane.

  3. on an intranet far far away by A10Mechanic · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The more you tighten your grip, Tarkin, the more star systems will slip through your fingers.

  4. Iran has accepted SOPA by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    and has begun implementing it. The corporations will be pleased!

  5. The good news by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    The good news is that soon, we may have some left over IPv4 again.

  6. halal://persianbabes.allah by Average_Joe_Sixpack · · Score: 5, Funny

    in terms of popularity halal will rank above gopher but below telnet

  7. Re:Not the Iranians, their rulers by Moryath · · Score: 5, Insightful

    with a President who, just like a Republican candidate, has to pretend to be a religious fruitcake to keep power.

    You haven't been paying much attention to Ahmadamnutjob or his Republican counterparts lately, have you? It's obvious they actually believe their religious fruitcakery. There's no pretending involved.

    Especially that Santorum guy. Wow. He's basically Ahmadamnutjob in a sweater vest.