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Iran Blocks Google, Moves Forward With Domestic Network Plans

Posted by samzenpus on from the keeping-it-clean dept.

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."

7 of 134 comments (clear)

  1. Hey by benjfowler · · Score: 4, Insightful

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

    1. Re:Hey by PolygamousRanchKid+ · · Score: 4, Insightful

      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.

      --
      Schroedinger's Brexit: The UK is both in and out of the EU at the same time!
    2. Re:Hey by MightyMartian · · Score: 5, Insightful

      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.

      --
      The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
    3. Re:Hey by mr.mctibbs · · Score: 5, Insightful

      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.

  2. Re:Stupid is as stupid blocks. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    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.

  3. Re:So, basically Iran is deploying a LAN? by ackthpt · · Score: 4, Insightful

    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.

    --

    A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
  4. Re:Stupid is as stupid blocks. by benjfowler · · Score: 5, Insightful

    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.