Iran Blocks Google, Moves Forward With Domestic Network Plans

hlovy writes "Iran moved forward with their previously discussed plans for a domestic version of the Internet over the weekend, as government officials announced that Google would be one of the first websites to be filtered through their state-controlled information network. According to Reuters, officials are claiming that the country's self-contained version of the World Wide Web, which was first announced last week, is part of an initiative to improve cyber security. However, it will reportedly also give the country the ability to better control the type of information that users can access online."

Comments

Hey

[benjfowler]

I wonder how hard the Iranian people need to be shit on before they do something about their awful government?

Re:Hey

[Anonymous Coward]

According to this link from the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, Iran is a middle income developing country:

http://unctad.org/en/Docs/iteipc20057_en.pdf

It just needs to going through the pain that the West had to take in separating Church from stat

Re:Hey

[Anonymous Coward]

I'm not going to say that, but I could see it happening. All they'd have to do is tell people that it's to stop pedophiles & terrorists and far too many people would be perfectly OK with it. It's not that bad here, but give it a few years and it may get there... the only difference is that here we will vote for it.

Not even that ....

Here in the States especially here in the Bible Belt, there are folks who vote on "Social Issues". And when you actaully listen to everything they have to say - get'em going and you'll hear it! - what they describe for what they want for this country isn't too far off from what is happening in Iran, Saudi Arabia, and any other country that has oppressive societies.

When you point that out to them, they usually respond with "that's different".

It's only wrong when Islamic countries do it.

Believe me, there are Christians here that would be tickled pink to have a Christain Theocracy as oppressive as any Islamic country and they don't see contradiction or Constituional problems. And the thing that sickens me is that the Republican Party - and it's all their fault - have given these Theocratic Nuts too much power.

-ex-republican who left because the party has been high-jacked by the Christain Taliban.

Re:Hey

[PolygamousRanchKid]

They wanted an Islamic government, and now they have one.

They got what they asked for, but not what they wanted. At that time, they didn't think about any back out or early termination clauses either.

"Every country has the government it deserves (Toute nation a le gouvernement qu’elle mérite)" -- Joseph de Maistre, Lettres et Opuscules Inédits vol. 1, letter 53, written on 15 August 1811 and published in 1851.

Re:Hey

[MightyMartian]

It means Iranian the business, education and research industries will be starved of the valuable interactions that have made the Internet such a key part of the global economy. Even China is wise enough not to actually build a wall, contenting itself with imperfect filtering.

This whole concept underlines what is so critically wrong with the Iranian regime. It's not that it is an authoritarian government, it's that it is an authoritarian government that knows a lot about being authoritarian, but lacks the imagination or wit to understand that if you keep adopting measures that suppress economic activity, sooner or later the house of cards will topple and the very power you seek to keep in your clutches will fall away.

Even Burma/Myanmar has finally figured it out, as it watches its neighbors making vast fortunes as its own economy underperform with tragic social consequences. Iran is rapidly moving to join North Korea in the incurable basket case club. Yes, they will likely have nukes like NK does, and that will certainly mean they are immune from direct threat, but internally it will be a situation of where the elite spend their days and nights wondering whether they should point the nukes at neighboring countries, or at their own populace.

Re:Hey

[benjfowler]

William Buckley would likely be rolling in his grave, if he'd seen where the birchers, tea baggers and Koch operatives have taken the conservative side of politics.

I'm sure there are plenty of people out there who look back with nostalgia, to times where the thinkers on the conservative side of politics could win people over with the power of their ideas and principles, rather than just mouthing cheap slogans and whipping up hysteria.

Maybe I'm naive, but it would be nice to have political opponents, that if didn't necessarily agree with their point of you, but actually respect what they were saying. The Right has not exactly covered itself in glory with its descent into lowest-common-denominator populism in the last 20 years.

Re:Hey

[hazah]

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

Re:Hey

[mr.mctibbs]

They wanted a secular democracy, and had it. Then we took it away from them, and the only folks left who were willing and able to fight for self-determination were Islamist extremists. It's not the government they deserve -- it's the only option the CIA left them. And now because of us once again (Stuxnet/Flame), the Islamists have a pretext to restrict internet freedoms even further in that country. Way to go, guys.

Re:Stupid is as stupid blocks.

[Anonymous Coward]

what is wrong with google (in the eyes of iran) is that it allows for easy access to education. education is the enemy of a religious based government such as the iranian government. education makes the masses less likely to believe in religious doctrine.

basically, this is the equivalent of burning the library of alexandria.

Re:So, basically Iran is deploying a LAN?

[ackthpt]

Sounds like a big LAN to me. But, it might be harder for us to get viruses into them now.

In the end it won't be about viruses, but Twitter, Facebook, various blogs and forums, which they want to keep their people away from, so the only source of information becomes the state. If you can't trust the state, whom can you trust?

BTW, Ahmadinejad has won the next election by a landslide, take their word for it.

Re:Stupid is as stupid blocks.

[benjfowler]

The Iranians I've met buck the trend with Islam in general -- they seem to be cultured and enlightened people who have a lot of respect for education.

This would present obvious problems for the odious theocratric tyranny they suffer under at home.

Attacking education and the free exchange of idea is the old standby of reactionaries everywhere.

The United States of Apostasy

[Taco Cowboy]

My relatives tell me that the Shah was reasonably fair â" sure, kind of a dictator, but he and his father had taken the country from an agragrian backwater to a modern industrial society in a matter of two generations â" and basically... the U.S. funded student groups, pro-democracy organizations, &c and sowed dissent so that none of them would agree enough to stand in unity... and then gave guns to the Ayatollah.

I really like the United States of America. I stayed there for many many years, and there, I have met with a lot of very, very good friends.
 
I love the American spirit. I truly admire the original intent of America - At least according to what the founding fathers (and also President Abe Lincoln) had written, including the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, and the Gettysburg Address.
 
However, I have to confess that I simply can not understand what the government of USA is doing, for the past few decades.
 
Instead of carrying out the mission of the founding fathers, the US government has been doing a lot to the opposite.
 
Many years from now, historians in the future will compile the things the the government of the United States of America had been doing, since World War I, and they will find out that the United States of America is no more than a "name", a "label", a "billboard".
 
The spirit that made America so much different from the rest is long gone.
 
It's unfortunate, but it's the truth.
 
Nowadays it's not cool to say things that I've said, and I know that I will be modded down.
 
But, if this message (and others) can be archived, so that future generations get the chance to read, they may get to see a clearer picture of what is happening right now.