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Raw Bytes Computer News KPBX FM 91.1 Radio National Public Radio Network Frank Delaney Producer Broadcast on Wednesday Morning 7:35 AM During Morning Edition Support Public Radio ! The Theater Of the Mind |
In computer news this week
06/17/2009 What if we lived in a country that
controlled our access to the internet – like Iran is doing right now ? And how do they block their people from using the
internet? As
Americans, we can’t conceive of the concept of our own government
trying to control what we watch on tv, or what we access on the Internet. But as we
watch CNN today and see the protests in Iran, the talking heads are all
telling us that the Iranian government has blocked all internet access from their
people. As this
interested me, I was able to find a file on the web – not current
– but recent enough – 2005 - to answer a lot of my questions, and
also shed a lot of light on the issue. It’s
named A
Report on the Status of the Internet in Iran, and it was prepared by the
Iran CSO Training and Research company. In 2005
the internet had been around 10 years in Iran. The government had mixed
feelings about the internet, recognizing the educational benefit of it, but
worried about how to censor it. Iran does
have modern fiber
optic networks, and the number of computers at the time was estimated at 6
million. The
number of internet users was estimated by Iran’s
Telecommunication Company to increase to 20 million by 2009. There
were 11 authorized ISP’s in the country, all controlled by the
government as were all the radio and television stations, and the phone
companies. Iran has
many laws regarding the use of the internet. Censorship
of the Internet in Iran includes 2 layers and 3 methods.. The first two layers involve filtering by the government of
all the ISP’s in Iran, requiring them to use filtering software. Another censorship method is using the key words in a website,
a task required of ISPs. The software used in this method searches for
certain words in the website and will censor the webpage if it finds any. Websites themselves were also censored by name or IP address,
in 2005 totaling about 25,000. Reasons for censoring websites included the websites
themselves dealing with pornography, sexuality, human rights, religion,
politics, women’s issues, news and satire, and weblogs. Related to
blogging, many site owners, writers, and bloggers were subject to arrest,
interrogation, and imprisonment. Most ominous about all this is that is says what you
can’t do, but is vague about what will happen to you if you violate
these policies. And as we now are in the internet age of social networks,
another current news story is how the president of Iran blocked any
access to Facebook in advance of the actual elections. So enjoy your computer, and your cell phone, and your
television a little more today, as you realize that millions of people in our
supposed modern world don’t have those same freedoms. |
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For Raw Bytes This is Frank Delaney (C) 2009 MTA Micro
Technology Associates http://www.mtamicro.com/kpbx.html PO Box 31522 Spokane, Wa 99223-1522 (509)624-7230 |
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