Iran Plans to Unplug Internet, Create Its Own

Published on 05-29-2011 02:04 PM

Iran is waging war on open Internet. Looking to limit the cyber-infiltration of Western ideas, Iran's telecommunications chief claimed that, in two years time, all Iranians would be forced to use a state-censored, fully-internal Internet.
About 60% of the nation's homes and businesses are expected to be on it much sooner than that, he added. Iran sees the move toward heightened online policing as a way to uphold Islamic moral values, though whether it can truly block the world's Internet remains an open question, theWall Street Journal reports.

Iran has seen a proliferation of pro-democracy blogs and anti-regime activity made viral by Facebook and Twitter, and Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and other top officials support Internet regulation as a response to the "soft war" waged on them by the West. The country first plans to roll out its new network in parallel with the existing, open network, but expects to eventually make a full switch.

The 11% of citizens who have Internet access will be forced to use a non-Microsoft operating system and a Google alternative called "Ya Hagh" (Oh, Justice). Click to read about Hosni Mubarak's penalty for trying to unplug his nation.

Source: Newser

Categories:
Internet

5 Comments

duke0102 - 05-29-2011, 02:30 PM
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Eeek, sucks to be in Iran.

megabyteme - 05-29-2011, 08:30 PM
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They already have this in most Iranian villages- when someone wants to "look up" a bit of information, he throws a rock at the tent next to him and shouts his query. That guy then tries to remember the answer. If he does't know, he then throws a rock at the tent next to his. Eventually the answer gets found, and the original searcher beats his wife, and goes back to sleep.

OlegL - 05-29-2011, 08:43 PM
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And there was a time when Iran was actually a more secular country and more open to democratic ideas. However, a revolution happened there, and all of that changed. If I remember history correctly, Iran was taken over by Islamic extremists when Reagan was President. Wasn't there a scandal that had to do with American hostages held in Iran when Reagan was President?

Edit: okay, I just read in Wikipedia that the Iranian revolution happened in 1979, which means Carter was President at that time.

lavino - 05-29-2011, 09:31 PM
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Good for them. So I guess it will pause 5 times a day, only 1/10 of your screen is visible and if you try anything funny it will blow up your screen?

Cut-Copy-Paste - 06-01-2011, 10:09 AM
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Originally Posted by lavino

Good for them. So I guess it will pause 5 times a day, only 1/10 of your screen is visible and if you try anything funny it will blow up your screen?

And you get instant STD for watching p0rn