Iran Vows to Unplug Internet

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.

<i>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.</i><p>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.

I wonder how soon after their halal-net goes online that someone will get some bridges going and 4chan <i>et al</i> become available.

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.

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

Before you all get uppity, don't forget that both America and Canada are:<p>1) Spying on their citizens. 2) Not above an Internet kill switch. You know, for the kids.

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.

Sweet, back to the streets.

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

This is a good time to remember John Perry Barlow's "<i>A Declaration of the Independence of Cyberspace</i>":<p><a href="http://doc.cat-v.org/political_science/cyberspace-declaration-of-independence" rel="nofollow">http://doc.cat-v.org/political_science/cyberspace-declaratio...</a>

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