Iran: Our Internet Censorship is Atomic-Strength

Iran may or may not be minutes away from building a nuclear bomb, depending on which side you listen to, but there's no doubt that the theocratic regime in control of the country has figured out how to censor the web.

Esmail Radkani, the technical head of the company that filters Iranian Internet, bragged to a newspaper earlier this month that his company is filtering more than 10 million websites and adding a thousand online publications to its no-read list every month, according to Reporters Without Borders.

The press freedom group isn't too happy with the news:

In the name of 'morality', the Iranian Internet is being cleansed of all independent news and information, all political opposition and all information about the rights or the condition of women.

The party's leaders, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad at the head, know on the other hand how to exploit the Internet to get across their political opinions, particular through their personal blogs.

At a time when the government is closing the last remaining newspapers showing even slight independence, this resurgence in censorship is unsurprising. The authorities are constantly seeking to isolate their citizens even further from the rest of the world, so as to boost their authority and to aggravate the population's hostility to the outside world.

I can't wait for the good people of Iran to figure out how to get rid of the religious zealots and opportunists currently in charge of the courts and the servers. In the meantime, may all their packets flow through anonymizing proxies.

Photo: frankh