The country of Iran intends to unplug the Internet and release their very own alternative, which they claim to be “clean”. Aren’t you glad that your government is not that repressive (unless you are from North Korea, of course). Iran has made it to the top of a recent list of repressive regimes which most aggressively restrict Internet freedom. This list was published by Reporters Without Borders, and it seems that the Iranian government has plans to create its own “clean” Internet. This proposed system will be isolated from the Internet that we have all come to know and love, and needless to say, it will be heavily regulated by the government. Iranian government officials have claimed that this new system is more than ready to hit action within 5 months’ time.
The Iranian government has also been hard at work in creating their own custom electronic mail service, where a national search engine called Ya Haq (pronounced as “Oh Just One”) which will (in the eyes of the government) hopefully replace Google as the search engine of choice. To obtain an account on the state-approved mail service, you will need to register your identity with the government. Currently, Iranian information and communication minister Reza Taghipour declared a new message that all Internet service providers that offer connectivity in Iran will have to align themselves with the national Internet – that and that alone. From August onwards, this mandate will kick into action from August onwards. Hopefully, the Iranians will then be able to access Ubergizmo by then.
This is not the first time Iran has had a run in with the Internet, so to speak, as they disrupted Internet access before their elections in the past, even blocking Gmail and Youtube.