The Boston Globe reports on what it’s like to be a blogger in the Islamic Republic. In a word, it’s not easy.
Iran has a long tradition of controlling the airwaves and the print media, banning papers and jailing journalists who criticize official policies.
But Iran’s online activists have proved harder to quash. They have used fast-changing Web addresses, proxy sites, and other technological tricks to get around the restrictions.
“They block us and we evade the blocks,” Samiei said. “It goes on every day. They code, we decode.”
The Ministry of Information periodically sends lists to Internet service providers saying which keywords to filter out so that users can’t get access to websites or blogs that contain them. The government contends that the principal target is pornography and other morally offensive material. The word “sex” is among those blocked.
That has some odd consequences. At one point, an Internet caf? owner said, the word “hot” was blocked. And that briefly prevented access to Hotmail, the popular e-mail program.
It seems Big Brother is having trouble controlling the telescreen.
December 19th, 2006 at 11:01 pm
Gee, the actions of millions of people attempting to live in a state of Liberty are able to outsmart government bureaucrats. Color me shocked…
I’m highly excited about the positive effects the Internet will have on the world. It can’t be stopped, and it’s unclear whether it can even be contained.