Journal 10, June 21

http://www.technologyreview.com/blog/guest/23691/

Currently during the tumultuous election instability in Iran, the government has increased censorship of the internet. Reportedly, the Iranian government has upped the anty and filtered such websites as Facebook and Twitter. Suspecting these types of sites have information that is unfavorable to the current government situation, the increased filtering actions are just another way for the government to control public opinion. The latest Iranian election was to approve continuing power of current president and conservative leader Ahmadinejad. His opponent, Mousavi, who is more liberal and supports improving relations with the U.S. had a strong youth following with over 66% of his supporters under the age of 30.

With social networking sites being popular with this demographic, it is easy to see why the government wants to censor correspondence through these networks. When Ahmadjinejad won by a landslide, the revolt began in Iran and there have been more riots over the election since the 1979 Iranian Revolution.

To overcome the internet censorship, the use of proxies have risen with internet users in Iran. By using proxies, users can bypass the filtering through diverting internet content to pass through machines outside or Iran. Currently, internet traffic flows through one, government owned ISP. Iran has responded to proxies by blocking them as they are found but within the past week, the usage of these proxy tactics have doubled.

The information about the ongoing protests over the election are being disseminated through such sites as Twitter and Facebook and at one point, the government even turned off internet access in the country completely.

Technology now links the world and I believe we truly take for granted the freedoms and access to information that we have in the U.S. I believe that citizens have a right to speak out against what they dislike about their country and should not be censored off. Restricting internet access to free speech portals like Facebook and Twitter will only fuel the yearning for freedom and reform.

Sources:
http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2009/06/irans_disputed_election.html

http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2009/06/irans_presidential_election.html