Iran Plans to Unplug Internet, Create Its Own

Is Western influence affecting Iran so much that its leaders have decided to remove that influence? It appears so if you read the article here:

Posted May 28, 2011 12:18 PM CDT

(Newser) – Iran is waging war on open Internet. Looking to limit the cyber-infiltration of Western ideas, Iran's telecommunications chief claimed that, in two years time, all Iranians would be forced to use a state-censored, fully-internal Internet. About 60% of the nation's homes and businesses are expected to be on it much sooner than that, he added. Iran sees the move toward heightened online policing as a way to uphold Islamic moral values, though whether it can truly block the world's Internet remains an open question, the Wall Street Journal reports.

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Good luck with that guys. (sarcasm) You can never truly silence the determined as proven recently in Egypt. And dont forget Hosni Mubarak's penalty for trying to unplug his nation.

Mubarak Fined $34M for Cutting Internet

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And from the Wall Street Journal:

Iran Vows to Unplug Internet

Iran is taking steps toward an aggressive new form of censorship: a so-called national Internet that could, in effect, disconnect Iranian cyberspace from the rest of the world.

The leadership in Iran sees the project as a way to end the fight for control of the Internet, according to observers of Iranian policy inside and outside the country. Iran, already among the most sophisticated nations in online censoring, also promotes its national Internet as a cost-saving measure for consumers and as a way to uphold Islamic moral codes.

In February, as pro-democracy protests spread rapidly across the Middle East and ...

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I dont think Iran wants a new internet because of what is being said about them is that they are thinking smartly and becoming more independant an less dependant on US technology. If the U.S or others want to blackout IRAN then Iran suffers with no alternative. Russia and China have also done the same with introducing their very own GPS system which is common sense. Imagine fighting a war where all your equipment is being tracked by your enemy and you count on your enemy to relay that information to you....

Good for IRAN. What a beautiful country with beautiful people just like yourselves.

reply to post by Shadow Herder


post by Shadow Herder
"I dont think Iran wants a new internet because of what is being said about them is that they are thinking smartly and becoming more independant an less dependant on US technology."
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reply by manta78
Are you sure about that? From the rest of the article from the first source:

Iran has seen a proliferation of pro-democracy blogs and anti-regime activity made viral by Facebook and Twitter, and Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and other top officials support Internet regulation as a response to the "soft war" waged on them by the West. The country first plans to roll out its new network in parallel with the existing, open network, but expects to eventually make a full switch. The 11% of citizens who have Internet access will be forced to use a non-Microsoft operating system and a Google alternative called "Ya Hagh" (Oh, Justice).

reply to post by Shadow Herder


You are crazy, the people in Iran are being abused by their leader. This is censorship, they want their people to only see what they want them to see or it wouldn't be cut off from the rest of the internet.

I work with several people from Iran, all of them think heir country has gone down hill since the ayatollah took over.. Open your eyes..

Another interesting article related to this pending plan of Iran's to cut the internet here:

Cyber attacks, politically motivated censorship, and government control over Internet infrastructure are among the diverse and growing threats to Internet freedom, according to Freedom on the Net 2011: A Global Assessment of Internet and Digital Media, a new study released last week by Freedom House. These encroachments on Internet freedom come at a time of explosive growth in the number of Internet users worldwide, which has doubled over the past five years.

Governments are responding to the increased influence of the new medium by seeking to control online activity, restricting the free flow of information, and otherwise infringing on the rights of users.

"These detailed findings clearly show that Internet freedom cannot be taken for granted. Non democratic regimes are devoting more attention and resources to censorship and other forms of interference with online expression," said David J. Kramer, executive director of Freedom House

and specifically discussing Iran's attacks against internet freedom here:

Since the protests that followed Iran’s flawed presidential election on June 12, 2009, authorities have waged a fierce campaign against Internet freedom in that country, including deliberately slowing Internet speeds at critical times and using hacking to disable opposition websites. An increasing number of bloggers have been threatened, arrested, tortured, or kept in solitary confinement, and at least one died in prison.

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The plan could backfire.

In an effort to cut Iran off from seeing pro-democracy views, the very act of censoring the outside world could be one more incentive for the pro-democracy folks to rally around to get new leadership in the country, by election, or revolution of necessary.

This story coincides with the unconstitutional PROTECT IP act which was just passed by the numb skulls the dumbed down US masses elected.

I would quicker assume that the over-reaching authority this act gives the US to shut down any website at will with no warrant or oversight is the reason they are creating their own 'internet', in case the US wants to shut down the domain names of websites in Iran.

It is happening here with the new internet acts just going through congress.

Originally posted by Arbitrageur
The plan could backfire.

In an effort to cut Iran off from seeing pro-democracy views, the very act of censoring the outside world could be one more incentive for the pro-democracy folks to rally around to get new leadership in the country, by election, or revolution of necessary.

I agree, especially from the young people in Iran.
They are not going to accept the fact that they are cut off from the rest of the world.