

Iran Vows to Unplug Internet - huetsch
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704889404576277391449002016.html?mod=WSJASIA_hpp_MIDDLETopNews

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siculars
The free flow of information vs. censorship is the key social issue of our
time. It is almost like having a front row seat to watching history repeat
itself re. Printing, radio and television.

~~~
bluekeybox
"History repeats itself -- first time as tragedy, second time as farce" --
Marx.

I suppose we are at the farce stage with the Internet.

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swombat
_On Friday, new reports emerged in the local press that Iran also intends to
roll out its own computer operating system in coming months to replace
Microsoft Corp.'s Windows._

Yeah, I'm sure that'll work out well. Iran has always been known as a hot-bed
of bleeding-edge secure operating system design, right? And SecureBSD folks
will be happy to pitch in to help build an OS that kills free speech dead.

~~~
Apocryphon
Well, North Korea created its own Linux, so perhaps it's natural that Iran
would have its own BSD... <http://rt.com/news/north-korea-cyber-weapon/>

~~~
juiceandjuice
Named... ISD.

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pnathan
I wonder how soon after their halal-net goes online that someone will get some
bridges going and 4chan _et al_ become available.

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SoftwareMaven
My thoughts were more of the Internet version of Radio Free Europe.

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jamaicahest
Oh the irony of creating software based on ideas and technology stolen from
companies of the culture which they are trying to "keep out". Reminds me of
the pictures of people with signs saying "Death to America", while wearing
Levi's jeans and Gucci sunglasses.

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joejohnson
Is that a really short article? Or do you have to pay to read the whole story?

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w1ntermute
Looks like the Google-the-title trick doesn't work anymore unless you clear
your cookies or use another browser. Anyway, the full text is at
<http://pastebin.com/hhJLD6bs>

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pavel_lishin
Anyone else find it amusing - or is it ironic? - that someone provided free
access to an otherwise hidden article about censorship online?

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daeken
A private corporation restricting access to information isn't censorship. If
it were an article that the government put behind a paywall, you _might_ be
able to construe it as such, but even then it seems silly since there's still
no limit on the expression itself.

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gnosis
_"A private corporation restricting access to information isn't censorship."_

    
    
      Censorship is the suppression of speech or other public communication
      which may be considered objectionable, harmful, sensitive, or
      inconvenient to the general body of people as determined by a
      government, media outlet, or other controlling body.
    

<https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Censorship>

~~~
ryanhuff
Unfortunately, the quoted text was missing a key word. Rephrased here:

"A private corporation restricting access to ITS OWN information isn't
censorship."

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cheez
Before you all get uppity, don't forget that both America and Canada are:

1) Spying on their citizens. 2) Not above an Internet kill switch. You know,
for the kids.

~~~
junklight
but the fascinating thing here is that evan Iran, who explicitly see it as an
existential threat - which is way more serious than "won't you think of the
children", seem unable to even think of disconnecting it entirely.

There is a certain amount of political capital in shouting loudly about
thinking of the children, and the evils of the net. However, if Iran can't
even turn it off because they rely on it for commerce and other key functions,
How much worse would a lack of net hit the west?

Like the war on drugs the arising war on the net, driven in part by the death
throws of big media, will be a lot more bluster, grandiose talk and rather
lucrative funding of projects than effective action.

(you notice I've ignored spying. I reckon Google know more about me than the
government does. My generation will flap about going "ooh ooh the privacy!".
My children will grow in a world that has never been different and will find
ways to adapt)

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jodrellblank
_evan Iran, who explicitly see it as an existential threat_

It probably _is_. The real question is should the outside let the government
of Iran disconnect their citizens to keep their ideals? Should "wilful
obstruction of facts known and shared by other humans" become a kind of
humanitarian offence, with a bit of leeway for yet-to-be-agreed reasonable law
enforcement purposes? Should it become a more pressing consideration the more
the difference between rich scientific countries and closed-
off/poor/controlled societies grows?

The UN human rights declaration includes Education, and the Cairo declaration
of human rights in Islam forbids discrimination on racial, political
affiliation and belief grounds, and also "emphasizes the "full right to
freedom and self-determination", and its opposition to enslavement,
oppression, exploitation and colonialism."

"22(c) states: "Information is a vital necessity to society. It may not be
exploited or misused in such a way as may [..] disintegrate, corrupt or harm
society or weaken its faith."

22(d) states "It is not permitted to arouse nationalistic or doctrinal hatred
or to do anything that may be an incitement to any form of racial
discrimination."

(Source: Wikipedia). A right to education isn't much good if it only covers
being educated in what some people want you to know. Information may not be
used to disrupt or weaken the faith of an Islamic society by that convention,
which the internet probably would, but censoring it for being "western" seems
close to nationalistic and doctrinal hatred. (Iran may have nothing to do with
the CDHRI).

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smashing
This is shortsighted because if the leaders in Iran listen to Eli Pariser talk
or read his book “The Filter Bubble: What the Internet Is Hiding From You"
they would learn that the Iranians are more likely to develop tendencies
towards extremist Islam rather than away from it due to the "filter bubbles"
created by the personalization features of sites like Facebook and Google.

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omouse
Sweet, back to the streets.

~~~
9999
There's no quicker way to foment a revolution than cutting off access to our
cutting edge Western pornography.

~~~
Jach
s/our cutting.\\+/the internet./ and you would have got like 20 upvotes.

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chacha102
Is it ironic that while reading an article about the 'free flow of
information', I get stopped by a pay wall?

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uriel
This is a good time to remember John Perry Barlow's " _A Declaration of the
Independence of Cyberspace_ ":

[http://doc.cat-v.org/political_science/cyberspace-
declaratio...](http://doc.cat-v.org/political_science/cyberspace-declaration-
of-independence)

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ignifero
Ahmie's time to run away is coming, it seems ...

