<incom> Drop in the Bucket

[Steve Cisler]

>From the earliest days of the public Internet
countries in this region have been worried about
corrosive effects of outside info, chatter,
culture...Now the most recent move:


Iran bans fast internet to cut west's influence
· Service providers told to restrict online speeds
· Opponents say move will hamper country's progress

Robert Tait in Tehran
Wednesday October 18, 2006
The Guardian


 

The following correction was printed in the Guardian's
Corrections and clarifications column, Wednesday
October 25 2006

In the report below, we said that Iran's service
providers had been told to restrict online speeds to
"128 kilobytes a second". That should have been 128
kilobits per second (kbps).


Iran's Islamic government has opened a new front in
its drive to stifle domestic political dissent and
combat the influence of western culture - by banning
high-speed internet links.

In a blow to the country's estimated 5 million
internet users, service providers have been told to
restrict online speeds to 128 kilobits per second
(kbps) and been forbidden from offering fast broadband
packages. The move by Iran's telecommunications
regulator will make it more difficult to download
foreign music, films and television programmes, which
the authorities blame for undermining Islamic culture
among the younger generation. It will also impede
efforts by political opposition groups to organise by
uploading information on to the net.

The order follows a purge on illegal satellite dishes,
which millions of Iranians use to clandestinely watch
western television. Police have seized thousands of
dishes in recent months.

The latest step has drawn condemnation from MPs,
internet service companies and academics, who say it
will hamper Iran's progress. "Every country in the
world is moving towards modernisation and a major
element of this is high-speed internet access," said
Ramazan-ali Sedeghzadeh, chairman of the parliamentary
telecommunications committee. "The country needs it
for development and access to contemporary science."

Iran has not responded to a western incentive package
that includes the offer of state-of-the-art internet
technology in return for the suspension of a key part
of the country's nuclear programme.

A petition branding the high-speed ban as "backward
and unprincipled" bearing more than 1,000 signatures
is to be sent to President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

Scores of websites and blogs are censored using
hi-tech US-made filtering equipment. Iran filters more
websites than any other country apart from China.
High-speed links can be used with anti-filtering
devices to access filtered sites.

The telecoms regulator declined to explain the
decision but said it was taken by "a collection of
policy-makers". However, Etemad, a pro-reformist
newspaper, suggested it was part of an official
campaign to stem a western "cultural invasion".

"Unpleasant whispers are saying that the motivations
behind the scenes are the same as those involved in
the purging of satellite dishes," the paper wrote.

Parastoo Dokoohaki, a prominent Iranian blogger, said
the move was designed to foil the government's
opponents. "If you want to announce a gathering in
advance, you won't see it mentioned on official
websites and newspapers would announce it too late.
Therefore, you upload it anonymously and put the
information out. Banning high-speed links would limit
that facility. Despite having the telecoms facilities,
fibre-optic technology and internet infrastructure,
the authorities want us to be undeveloped."

The crackdown comes in an atmosphere of increasing
restrictions on the media. Last week, Mr Ahmadinejad
launched a fierce attack on the head of the state
broadcasting organisation, IRIB, which he blamed for
stoking public fears about inflation. Iran's leading
reformist newspaper, Shargh, was also closed last
month.