Iran Set To Block Access To Google 279
legolas writes "The official state online censorship body in Iran has reported that Google and Gmail are going to be blocked effective immediately, ostensibly in response to the contentious videos that YouTube is hosting. This comes as Iran is preparing the launch of their 'Halal' intranet to replace the current direct (albeit highly censored) access to the global Internet. While there have been several state-organized protests for the film 'Innocence Of Muslims' in Iran, the public in general doesn't seem bothered by it."
Re:Before we get the usual gaggle of fascists (Score:5, Informative)
I think the most scary thing from the poll you linked is that 8% of Muslims did not agree that: Muslims living in the U.S. do not sympathize with the al Qaeda terrorist organization.
This means that 1 in 12 Muslims interviewed could believe that Muslims living in the U.S. sympathize with an organisation who openly hates western society.
Re:Complete and utter pandering BULLSHIT (Score:1, Informative)
Re:Before we get the usual gaggle of fascists (Score:4, Informative)
Well, that could have other meanings. It could mean, as you say, that they're admitting something. But it could just as likely mean that there are some Muslims who are cynical about people of their faith. I'm sure we can find a good percentage of self-identified Christians who think they're surrounded by fundamentalists and think there are people among them who sympathize with abortion clinic bombers. Less of them would think so as compared to non-Christians, just like the graph, but I'm sure you could find 8 cynics out of 100.
Re:Before we get the usual gaggle of fascists (Score:5, Informative)
It takes generations to remove hate from a culture, but it only takes a few years to generate it.
Assuming it ever really leaves. . .
The Full-Blown Return of Anti-Semitism in Europe [gatestoneinstitute.org]
The New Anti-Semitism [washingtonpost.com]
Is Toulouse the Future of Europe? [commentarymagazine.com]
If you dont think hate is being generated here in the USA by "news channel talk show hosts" or "radio talk show hosts", then you havent been paying attention.
The problem is bigger than you think [michellemalkin.com].
Re:Before we get the usual gaggle of fascists (Score:5, Informative)
I know a few Iranian students, and from what I can tell, there is a *huge* gap between the people and the government in Iran. While the leaders are frantically screaming and warmongering, the population just sighs, shake their heads, and go on living. The petty rules are simply ignored whenever they can. Civil disobedience is a national hobby. I love that attitude. This is especially true in the larger cities that are more modern than you might think.
Reality vs media, not blocked yet (Score:5, Informative)
The reality is the censorship is considered to be a complete joke - freegate or tor just goes right through it. The government is just wasting their time. Facebook, youtube and twitter are all "blocked" but everyone uses them. It only gets annoying when you're accessing wifi from a mobile device and don't have a VPN already set up.
There's a site called blockediniran.com which is pretty accurate - http://www.blockediniran.com/?siteurl=google.com [blockediniran.com] it shows that google.com is not blocked yet (but, for example, it can't understand that m.smh.com.au is a website). However, when I was there, every other country variant of google was blocked - google.com.au, google.co.uk, google.co.nz etc, and blockediniran confirms those.