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Iran's web censorship among world's strictest: report
Yahoo! News ^ | June 21st, 05 | AFP

Posted on 06/21/2005 5:11:51 PM PDT by F14 Pilot

WASHINGTON (AFP) - Iran has among the strictest Internet censorship in the world, blocking access to sexual content, political websites, information on women's rights and "blogs," a study by Internet researchers showed.

The OpenNet Initiative, a partnership of researchers from Harvard University, the University of Toronto and University of Cambridge, noted that Iran uses technology from the US company, Secure Computing, calling the firm "complicit" in the censorship.

But they said that Internet content controls "have support at the highest levels of the Iranian state."

The researchers found some 34 percent of tested websites blocked.

"The Iranian state has effectively blocked access of its citizens to many pornographic online sites, most anonymizer tools, a large number of sites with gay and lesbian content, some politically sensitive sites, women's rights sites, and certain targeted Web logs (blogs), among other types of sites," the researchers wrote.

The found that online content in the Farsi language is more likely to be blocked than comparable content in the English language.

"Iran has put in place one of the world's most extensive and sophisticated Internet censorship regimes," said John Palfrey, executive director of the Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard.

"Along with China, Iran has committed to adapting its filtering practices with changes in Internet technology, which suggests that the cat and mouse game between those who would speak freely and those who would stop them is bound to continue. Bloggers who write in Farsi in Iran have a much harder job today in trying to reach their audience than bloggers in most other parts of the world."

"Our report on Iranian filtering of the Internet shows that not only are freedom of speech and access to information under threat, but that there is a growing commercial market for the technologies that diminish them," said Ronald Deibert, director of the Citizen Lab at the University of Toronto.

"By providing filtering systems to non-democratic regimes, the US company, Secure Computing, is complicit in Iranian breaches of the UN Declaration of Human Rights. This thriving Internet censorship market -- spread like a virus from China to Iran to an increasing number of countries worldwide -- calls into question not only the trumpeted slogans of high-tech firms that the Internet represents 'freedom' and 'connectivity,' but simplistic divisions between 'us' and 'them' as well."


TOPICS: Extended News; Foreign Affairs; News/Current Events; War on Terror
KEYWORDS: blogger; censorship; democracy; expression; free; freedom; internet; iran; iranian; jail; protest; right; student; uk; us; weblog
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1 posted on 06/21/2005 5:11:52 PM PDT by F14 Pilot
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To: DoctorZIn; McGavin999; freedom44; nuconvert; sionnsar; AdmSmith; parisa; onyx; Pro-Bush; Valin; ...

PING!


2 posted on 06/21/2005 5:12:52 PM PDT by F14 Pilot (Democracy is a process not a product)
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To: All

Iran also blocks all the Star Trek the Next Gen sites, because they all like Kirk waaaaay more than Picard.


3 posted on 06/21/2005 5:13:33 PM PDT by escapefromboston (manny ortez: mvp)
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To: F14 Pilot

I've heard of activists who help people in china get published by working with them in setting up USA hosting, and ways to access it or proxy through it in an encrypted manner, so it gets past the censors. I hope people do the same for these guys, especially for issues involvin political oriented freedom of speech. They have a right to honest information.


4 posted on 06/21/2005 5:17:31 PM PDT by neptune235
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To: F14 Pilot

Careful !! Hitlery is taking notes !!


5 posted on 06/21/2005 5:19:07 PM PDT by EagleUSA
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To: escapefromboston

SHAAAAAAAAH!
6 posted on 06/21/2005 5:20:15 PM PDT by LibertarianInExile (<-- sick of faux-conservatives who want federal government intervention for 'conservative things.')
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To: LibertarianInExile

Now thats a star ship captain Allah would be proud of.


7 posted on 06/21/2005 5:23:12 PM PDT by escapefromboston (manny ortez: mvp)
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Comment #8 Removed by Moderator

To: escapefromboston

"Now thats a star ship captain Allah would be proud of."

Boy, you don't see those words together often--"starship" and "Allah," I mean. It's kind of like "hi-tech" and "Muslim," or "cutting-edge" and "mosque."


9 posted on 06/21/2005 5:31:44 PM PDT by LibertarianInExile (<-- sick of faux-conservatives who want federal government intervention for 'conservative things.')
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To: DoctorZIn; F14 Pilot; Khashayar; nuconvert
Tell Iranians to get Free Gate or Ultra Surf, both that will bypass censoring firewall programs. This has been successful to defeat China's fire wall, and might be useful for Iran as well.

Free Gate
Ultra Surf

These might have to be uploaded to mirror sites to avoid denial of access for it to be added on the list of the censoring program.
10 posted on 06/21/2005 5:43:42 PM PDT by Wiz
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To: Entebbe; Evolution

Iran news ping


11 posted on 06/21/2005 5:44:29 PM PDT by Wiz
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To: LibertarianInExile
I haven't watched much post-Next Generation star treks, is their any Muslims in space? Most likely in the future their will be more Arab Muslims that white people.

I guess they will still be living in the 12th century though.
12 posted on 06/21/2005 5:46:38 PM PDT by escapefromboston (manny ortez: mvp)
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To: escapefromboston
"I haven't watched much post-Next Generation star treks, is their any Muslims in space? Most likely in the future their will be more Arab Muslims that white people. I guess they will still be living in the 12th century though."

I'm of the same mind as to Trek, I quit after TNG myself. But I'll let you know if I spot a Burhka as I'm surfing. Meanwhile, here's pic of my favorite burkha'ed babe, L'il Kim, whose appreciation of this country would benefit from a few years in a real burhka--and a jail cell, too. She'll spend a few years in one, hopefully, for perjuring herself to help a murderer:


13 posted on 06/21/2005 6:06:40 PM PDT by LibertarianInExile (<-- sick of faux-conservatives who want federal government intervention for 'conservative things.')
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To: F14 Pilot; nuconvert; Grampa Dave; BOBTHENAILER; MeekOneGOP; devolve; potlatch; ntnychik

CENSOR THE CENSORS!

14 posted on 06/21/2005 6:16:47 PM PDT by PhilDragoo (Hitlery: das Butch von Buchenvald)
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To: JohnathanRGalt

pong


15 posted on 06/21/2005 6:38:45 PM PDT by nuconvert (No More Axis of Evil by Christmas ! TLR) [there's a lot of bad people in the pistachio business])
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To: PhilDragoo

LoL


16 posted on 06/21/2005 7:36:52 PM PDT by F14 Pilot (Democracy is a process not a product)
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To: lebinmtl

But what if they catch him?


17 posted on 06/21/2005 7:38:42 PM PDT by F14 Pilot (Democracy is a process not a product)
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To: Wiz

None of them work here in Iran


18 posted on 06/21/2005 7:40:19 PM PDT by Khashayar (Screw You and Your Gas!)
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Comment #19 Removed by Moderator

To: F14 Pilot
Freedom in Iran ~ NOW!
20 posted on 06/22/2005 7:34:14 AM PDT by blackie (Be Well~Be Armed~Be Safe~Molon Labe!)
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