When you mention Iran to anyone from any other country in the world, freedom is not in the top ten list of descriptive terms that would be used. In America, anyone older than 40 would likely remember the American hostages being held against their will by extremist forces. In Israel, the terms used may refer to the current President’s vow to wipe their entire country off the map. Other nations may refer to statements by Ahmadinejad regarding homosexuals not being an issue in his country, because they are executed when their sexual orientation is discovered.
In 2009, during the last Iranian election, there was a great deal of dissension with the results as they were coming out. Iran moved to block mobile phone services and Facebook and YouTube were also blocked in the nation known for extremist views and leaders. YouTube is still restricted and one cannot access the site that records the outlandish statements that their leaders make when they are abroad. This year is another Iranian election and they are at it again.
Google has stated that there is a very noticeable drop in connections to Gmail accounts from their customers in Iran. While the executives at Google don’t claim that their site has been completely blocked as Iran has done previously, the drop in service is noticeable enough to cause them to release the information. One watchdog group, the Iran News Update tweeted that Gmail has been blocked and the virtual private network connections that were still available had experienced disruptions. There is also a report that international satellite broadcasts from around the world have been jammed.
Luckily for Iran, Ahmadinejad’s last term is coming to an end and there are six candidates that are vying for his position as leader of Iran. This Friday, Iranians will go in force to vote for their selected candidate in what would be called in America, the Primaries. If none of the six leaders reach a required fifty percent majority, the second election will be held on June 21, 2013. The free exchange of ideas is not something that is encouraged or permitted in Iran. For this nation, the internet represents a threat to the propaganda that serves as their national message.
We can expect this censorship to continue until well after the election season is over and the leadership in Iran has chosen the new leader that they will inform the voters that they have selected.
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