Russia follows Syria and Iran in tightening Internet censorship

Authorities of many eastern countries are trying to introduce a very tough censorship and block Internet sites as soon as they publish opposition content. The last country in this list is Russia. The authorities of this country introduce a law that allows government to block certain pages in the Internet.

Russia is the last country that joined the list of countries that block access to sites. This “campaign” is seemingly aimed at protection of under ages. Earlier Russian parliament approved the law concerning with the Internet. It allows government to block websites that contain prohibited in the country information. In addition, there is a "blacklist" of sites that can be harmful for under ages.

Now this law is in the force and started to be used in practice. As a result, some of the social networks such as Facebook and Twitter, have been forced to delete from their pages all the material that is concerned as illegal. While YouTube is still continue to oppose this decision, referring to the Russian court with a counter suit against the government.

Before Russia, some countries have introduced Internet censorship supposedly for fighting with Internet crimes. These countries are Tunisia, Egypt and Libya. Authorities of these countries try to limit the freedom of expression.

Iran takes the second place in the world after North Korea in the ranking of countries with the most severe censorship on the Internet. The Islamic Republic censor all western and anti-Islamic contents in the Internet.

As for Syria, earlier the country took the sixth place in the world among countries with the most tough Internet control. However, that was before the Syrian revolution. Recently, the Assad regime aims at introducing even more severe censorship and closing more and more sites, the goal is to prevent the spread of news about the actions of the rebels and the Free Syrian Army.


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The “electronic curtain” in Iran

“Iran developed «smart software that will limit citizen’s access to social networks and allow controlling this access” - local Mass Media quote the head of the chief of police’s, Ismail Ahmadi Moghadam statement.

“Smart control of social networks will help not only to nullify its disadvantages but also allow benefitting from its advantages”, said Ahmadi Moghadam.

“Smart software designing for web sites governance are in a full swing”- he added.
Facebook, Twitter and many others social web sites were blocked with the help of the official mechanism of filtration within strong Internet censorship that was introduced by the heads of Islamic republic.

But many users Of the World Wide Web in Iran, that is the half of the 75 million population, have Internet connection, found ways to avoid blocking by using VPN software, despite the fact that it was rendered unlawful.

Ahmadi Moghadam hinted at new software will really limit the access to social networks for Iranian citizens.

“Smart control of social networks is much better than its filtration”, - he said.

His comments took place after Facebook startup in the middle of December. This site was devoted to the page of the Supreme Spiritual Leader of the country, the ayatollah Ali Khamenei. This account attracts attention of the country and abroad. 

 
Authorities regularly warn Iranian citizens about the danger, that social network fraught, saying that these sites are the part of the East supported conspiracy aimed at Islam regime derogation. But the blogger Sattar Beheshti’s death In November of the last year caused international protests, which lead to the head of the policy unit layoff.

In 2011 Iran developed a “cyber-police unit” to resist attempts to criticize ruling regime in the Internet.

Iran also works at the development of the national Internet that, according to his words, will be “cleaned” of any unislamic content. Authorities said that “National Internet” will not block the Global Internet.

Social websites and networks, such video-sharing site as Youtube were used in organization of street protests after disputable reelection of the president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in 2009.

It was reported that several activists, bloggers and journalists were arrested because of their posts and comments in social networks.

The USA accused Iran of the “electronic curtain” creation that fenced off country’s citizens of the outside world
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Iran began testing the national Internet

The Iranian authorities began testing their Internet. If necessary, it will be easier to isolate users from the global Internet, experts say. Today there are 5,000,000 URLs locked.

Iran has entered the testing the Internet national project, also known as "Halal Internet"." It was reported by the Tehran authorities. The first step, according to the minister of information and communication technologies Iran Reza Tagipur, began on September 21 in 29 of 31 provinces. All government agencies connected to the state inner computer network without connection to the global Internet. By March 2013, the second step of the project, a "national Internet" that is supposed to be available to all Iranian universities, as well as to ordinary citizens, writes BFM.ru.

Whether the plan is possible
The Iranian Government has stressed that "national Internet" must co-exist with the global Internet, but the transfer of data within the national network will be faster and more reliable. The Tehran authorities deny the intention to isolate the Iranian Internet users from the rest of the world, in which many foreign observers suspect the Iranian government. "Isolation of the world's Internet will impose sanctions on Iran for themselves. It would be illogical," - said former Minister Mohammad Soleimani in an interview with the Iranian student news agency ISNA.

"I do not think that the Iranian government has necessary resources to implement such a complex project as a long-term and complete isolation of the Internet and turn it into an intranet," - said user Ali in the interview with DW Tehran Internet. Because of strict sanctions adopted by the international community against Iran, Tehran will be difficult to acquire appropriate software, said Ali. At the same time, he acknowledged that the Iranian leadership is concerned about the plans.

In turn, a London Iranian online activist Amin Sabet said: «Iran’s national Internet does not have the exact data. I do not believe in the fact that the Iranian government has the necessary infrastructure to create a national Internet or in the ability to close the World Wide Web access for users of this country. «However, the State is fully capable of quickly interring  in the work of the Internet and disabling certain pages, as happened with the services of YouTube and Gmail American company Google, Sabet said.

Following the model of China and Myanmar

In July 2012 the Iranian minister of information and communication technologies Tagipur Reza said that "for the 95% of the use of the Internet in Iran the international access is not required."

Representatives of the Tehran government insist that "Halal Internet" is the best way to "protect the religious and national values" of the country. However, experts are still critical about Iranian project "National Internet".

Member of the organization "Reporters without Borders" Reza Moeini believes that the Iranian project is not the same as Chinese "Golden Shield" (known as the "Great Chinese firewall"), which for today is considered to be the most developed system of state Internet censorship. There's a military dictatorship responded to her unwanted information by disabling the Web or decrease the speed of Internet connection. "According to Iranian authorities the main purpose is to leave access to the global Internet only for industry and the banking sector, and close it for normal users," - says Moeini.

One of the reasons that Tehran wants to turn off the computer from the state of the global Internet is quite understandable: the fear of cyber-attacks. Thus, in May 2012, a large number of office and business computers were affected by the virus Iran Flame - according to experts, the most dangerous in the world at the moment. Earlier Iranian computers attacked another virus - Stuxnet.

E-mail as a risk factor
After the "National Internet" started in government appeared the first information about what it is like. "This is an intranet, which is much faster than normal Internet, but without the access to e-mail and those foreign sites that are allowed by the Government," - told DW young Iranian Negara.

According to experts Iran blocked about five million Web addresses, including such well-known as Facebook. However, many users circumvent the ban by using proxy servers and network access VPN. This way you can check your mail and, for example, Gmail. But these people have  a "great risk" because there is evidence that some of the sites that offer services VPN, connected with the Iranian intelligence services.

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Iranian TV show does not recommend eating chicken

Iranian authorities have recommended that local television stations to refrain from showing films and programs containing scenes of hearty meals with chicken, writes The Daily Telgraph.

According to officials, such scenes could provoke envy and aggression in people who can not afford such a luxury that will increase social hatred in society.