If you are a person who is addicted to Online gaming or Social Networking sites, consider yourself lucky for not being in Iran.
In what comes as a shocker of a decision, Iranian minister for Information and Communications Technology, Reza Taghipour announced his decision to set up and implement a national Intranet. This would be followed by blockage of Services like Google, Gmail, Google Plus, Yahoo and Hotmail, in line with Iran’s plan for a so-called “Clean Internet” or “Halal Internet”.
The plan is expected to be executed in two phases – the first phase to be implemented in May 2012, wherein Google, Hotmail and Yahoo are expected to be blocked and replaced by government Intranet services like Iran Mail and Iran Search Engine. All other sites on the World Wide Web, will still be accessible.
The second phase is expected to be implemented in August, which would permanently block access to the Internet for the Iranians.
The new system would resemble a large corporate intranet, where only those pages are accessible that are approved by the system administrators. In this case a “white list” set up by the government which would contain those sites that would be accessible.
Registration Process for Halal Internet
It is learnt that a registration procedure, apparently started by the government, is in place to apply for procuring Iran Mail ID. If you wish to register yourself you’d have to provide authentic information pertaining to identity, including national ID, address and full name. Registration will be approved only after verifying and validating the credentials against the government data on the particular applicant.
“All Internet Service Providers (ISP) should only present National Internet by August,” Taghipour said in the statement.  The ministry has declined to confirm Taghipour’s plans, by calling rumors of it’s shutting down of the Internet a hoax, attributing it to “the propaganda wing of the West”.
The government has also made its intentions clear to limit access to proxy servers which allow users to access banned sites.
The question everyone is asking is what moral right does Taghipour have, who himself was added to the European Union sanctions list on Mar. 23, due to his involvement in the human rights violations during the 2009-2010 Iranian election protests, to allege that the Internet “promotes crime, disunity, unhealthy moral content, and atheism,” and that government’s goal is to eliminate the online “scourges.” ?
There have been instances as well where Iranian officials have perceived the Internet as a threat. In October last year an official called Facebook users a threat to Islamic values. In another instance Mehdi Jafari, head of the technology and intelligence section of the Pupil’s Basij militia, called the blogosphere as one of the “most effective elements of soft war” against Iran. By creating a complete blockade on free Internet, Iran is clearly on its way to sanctioning itself.
If the block is successfully implemented, there may be other countries who definitely may be tempted to try the same. However, historically, it has been difficult to block users from visiting pages thanks to services like Proxies, TOR, VPNs, SSH tunnelling, etc.
In this meanwhile, the TOR network, an activist group and an organization that creates alternate venues for online access, is working to provide ways for Iran to remain online especially during the upcoming election. The task would not be easy for the Iran Government and challenges would be plenty.
Clearly, the ones who would be affected the most would be the young educated Iranians who have been using the Internet as a medium to share ideas. The Internet has also been used to highlight atrocities against women. Now with the new censorship, the government is planning to curb freedom of expression.
There have been attempts by governments across the world to censor content, but this is monumental. The fact that they are planning to unplug Internet completely, underlines the arrogance of the officials, where they feel that they can get away by oppressing the people.
A look into how sites are blocked in Iran.
Abolishment of the Internet would mark the death of an already crippling Democracy.
And the decision to kill Democracy can’t be taken by a person at the rank of the minister for Information and Communications Technology alone, there definitely is someone who is far more powerful who would have approved this.
Hope President Ahmadinejad gets well soon!
Also, I sincerely hope Kapil Sibal doesn’t get influenced by this; Indians are a lot smarter and would find out the most innovative means of working around the blockages. 🙂