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In an earlier post I discussed attempts by
Egyptian authorities to crack down on bloggers and the free flow of
information in that society. The censorship threat is even worse in
Iran, where the state goes to extraordinary lengths to control the
media ... especially thoughts and images being channeled from Great
Satan that are liable to incite lusts or non-Islamic ideas.
The video sharing site YouTube is the
latest casualty in Tehran's crackdown on porn, gays, dissidents
and overseas opponents of the regime who might try to corrupt the
minds of a populace that has long been used to Big Daddy Mullah
controlling the newspapers ... and more recently, the internet.
Iranians who have tried to access YouTube
come across the ominous message ...
"On the basis of the Islamic Republic of
Iran laws, access to this website is not authorized".
I'm not sure if the print warning is
accompanied by strains of the Iranian national anthem, but it is
guaranteed to creep out those who are just interested in surfing
and having fun.
The Iranian government, runs some of the
most extensive filtering on the planet. This is detailed in a
report put out by OpenNet Initiative. University based researchers
who were part of an OpenNet experiment, remotely accessed computers
within Iran using a variety of methods - direct dialling into
ISP's, use of remote-control software and routing via servers
within Iran. They discovered that 34% of 1,465 URLs tested were
blocked. All porno sites were blocked, most gay sites were blocked,
as were many sites and blogs dealing with sensitive political
topics.
This official effort to shut and zip
people up extends most particularly to any bloggers attempting to
express their views in Farsi. Iranian bloggers with anything to say
that is critical of the regime, have less than a snowball's chance
in hell of expressing those opinions to an internet audience within
Iran. If they do succeed in pulling off that minor miracle, the
harsh penalties make the risk too costly for many.
Ironically the regime makes use of
technology produced in the West to accomplish its censorship goals.
One package they are known to have used is SmartFilter, put out by
the US company Smart Computing. This is somewhat similar to the
state-of-affairs in China where government run ISP's filter
everything from porn to politically sensitive material.
Iranian surfers can attempt to circumvent
government controls by using proxy servers, although apparently the
cyber mullahs have also managed to block many of these. Programs
for routing data and disguising traffic is the better option, but
any of these activities could land the user in hot water with the
authorities, so such options carry a certain amount of risk.
Of course this attempt to muffle the flow
of information is also part of a drive to shut up opponents of the
regime. YouTube's "crime" was acting as a conduit for videos
posted by groups such as Mujahedeen-e-Khalq and other critics of
the Islamic Republic. Pop songs are also routinely targeted.
In October of this year Reporters Without
Borders placed Iran in a group of 13 of the worst global culprits
in the area of online censorship, the others are ... Belarus,
China, Cuba, Egypt, Myanmar, North Korea, Saudi Arabia, Syria,
Tunisia, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Vietnam.
About the Author
Aidan Maconachy is a freelance writer and
artist based in Ontario. His blog is located at
http://aidanmaconachyblog.blogspot.com/
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