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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."
I wonder how hard the Iranian people need to be shit on before they do something about their awful government?
Um, Iran... you're just plain being evil against Google's Don't Be Evil policy. I suggest we allow Google to commit one evil act against Iran with no Slashdot discussion in order to punish the country for rejecting Google.
I'm LostCluster but I lost my password to that user. Hey Slashdot, how about helping me get it back!
Ask Slashdot: Creating your own network.
Hi Slashdotters, I work for the Ayatollahs of Iran. As you may know, we have decided to create our own internet, without the dangers of a free society like porn (seeing any part of a woman besides her eyes), pictures of Muhammed (Allah Akbar!), and Jewish influence (banks). I bought a Linksys router and am reading the user manual, however I do not understand how this works. There is a thin cable with 2 large metal sticks on one side. I thought it would plug into my camel, but when I tried she just spit on me and kicked me in the face. Also, I only see 4 ports. How am I going to wire the internet for an entire country with only 4 connections? Does the rest of the free world have some sort of timeshare for the internet? Please help my government oppress free speech!
sudo make me a sandwich
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.
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
"self-contained version of the World Wide Web"
You're doing it wrong.
There is a war going on for your mind.
Is this going to free up a bit of IPv4 address space?
Unfettered access to information? How unacceptable to my locked-in dogmas.
But nuclear power? That's a technology my stupid caveman government can support.
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.
Sounds like a big LAN to me. But, it might be harder for us to get viruses into them now.
A big LAN is a WAN. There are also some technical differences that make a WAN a WAN (WANs use different IP address space, and most specifically are a network composed of networks, unlike a LAN which is almost always a single network), although there isn't really a set rule that I am aware of that distinguishes a large LAN from a WAN.
"None can love freedom heartily, but good men; the rest love not freedom, but license." --John Milton
BTW, Ahmadinejad has won the next election by a landslide, take their word for it.
No he hasn't because his final term is up soon and he can't run again. That doesn't matter though as he is just a disposable puppet, the real power lies with the Supreme Leader who doesn't need to concern himself with silly things like elections.
Negative moral value of force outweighs the positive value of good intentions.
On a clear day, you can see the Tower of Babel from Tehran.
I'm sure many of us are very interested how well such a blockade holds up. Let them do their worse, and let the games begin. The first one to break through wins an iPhone and a stuffed Mohamed doll.
“He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
The are specifically targeting Google because Google is not censoring their content. I held a couple shares of Google a couple years ago and censorship based on the demands of certain countries went up for vote. The vote ruled that Google would not censor their content because of governmental demands. This was specifically put up for vote because of their move into China.
Will it contain blackjack and hookers?
This should give Lynx a jump in usage.
-- Using the preview button since 2005
IPX/SPX FTW!
Is it just my observation, or are there way too many stupid people in the world?
Back when I was in college 10 - 12 years ago the internet was this thing that would never be tamed. It was the wild west of free expression that could never be taken away. Censorship would be automatically routed around and all was good. That was a common belief by many here and in academia. I had one professor, philosophy professor with an undergrad in comp sci from Berkeley back in the 70's and a masters in math, who thought it very differently. He felt by 2020 the beast would be tamed, the powers that be would find ways to regulate it and bring it back under their control. The genie, he insisted, would indeed be put in the bottle. Not only that, but it would be come the tool of easy mass surveillance and that the internet would be the end of privacy as we knew it. I didn't want to believe him either, but a decade later here we are. And it seems like he was more right than wrong.
When China erected its Great Firewall it proved the internet could indeed be censored. Is it perfect, no, but it doesn't have to be. Just good enough. Soon a lot of countries were doing it.
Now, if (and I stress if) Iran can create their own internal network and succeeds then it is the end of the "internet" as we know it. The world wide web will be Balkanized so that content can be better regulated by local regimes.
"The problem with socialism is eventually you run out of other people's money" - Thatcher.
I think we know enough about Iran's internal power dynamic to know that Khameini and the Guardian Council themselves are just figureheads. It certainly was the case when Khomeini was Supreme Leader that the position was unassailable, but Khameini was always considered a relatively weak man, and almost certainly since 2009 Iran is now really run by the Revolutionary Guard and the leadership of the Basij. If Khameini was independent before, he is now a sick old man dominated by the "guardians of the Islamic revolution", and most certainly when he kicks the bucket, the next Supreme Leader will be the Revolutionary Guard's man. The day when the Supreme Leader was an independent authority capable of bringing the other factions to heal are gone. Iran is essentially a thinly veiled military dictatorship.
The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
just because the republicans base their laws on religious doctrine(and ultimately fails to pass those laws) doesnt mean that the democrats have no reason to pass laws that infringe on our rights
In layman's terms - just because someone points out that Group A is a bunch of douchebags, does not necessarily imply they think Group B is not a bunch of douchebags.
Sad that I feel compelled to simplify it so, but some folks gotta make everything a pissing contest, you know?
An enigma, wrapped in a riddle, shrouded in bacon and cheese
Don't forget that they also censor in the US from demands of the government; specifically in the form of DMCA takedown requests.
Careful with names containing L slashdot.org/~AiphaWolf_HK slashdot.org/~AlphaWoif_HK slashdot.org/~AiphaWoif_HK
I was mistaken. I thought it passed. It was rejected.
http://www.pcworld.com/article/131745/article.html
It's not clear that it's not what they wanted. Sure, many in Iran won't want this, but I suspect a good number of people (i.e. the mullas and hard line Islamists) will be more than happy to cut themselves off from the Infidels. Maybe an international islamic internet will emerge from this with Iran being the central hub...where no one insults Muhammed or Islamic governments.
My God can beat up your God. Just kidding...don't take offense. I know there's no God.
a WAN is only a WAN because some western infidel decided that... they might call it something completely different, and they might replace all their evil "routers" with cardboard boxes full of monkeys (blessed monkeys of course)
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.
No doubt you've also noticed that these people mostly tend to live in exile outside of Iran, either as private businessmen or as academics in American and European universities. The intelligent and cultured people with the means to do so mostly fled the country after the Iranian Revolution of 1979 and many of them haven't been back since. So the people that you meet are mostly not the ones who can effect any sort of real change in their former homeland. They're nice people, but any change isn't going to start with them as long as they remain in exile and they know that they will be killed or thrown in prison and tortured if they return so very few of them are willing to go back for any reason, least of all to lead a counter-revolution.
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.
You mentioned 3 countries - Iran, China and Burma.
You also pointed out that China and Burma have not done what Iran is doing.
Now, let me ask you this - What truly differentiate the Iranian dictatorship from that of Burma and/or China?
Muchas Gracias, Señor Edward Snowden !
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.
Muchas Gracias, Señor Edward Snowden !