Re: <nettime> Iranonymity

[Michael H Goldhaber <mgoldh@well.com>]

Maybe the mullahs can get puppet dissidents to complain that porn sites
are blocked, thus showing the US is not really willing to grant adult
status to Iranians. Then if the sites are unblocked in reponse , perhaps
that will distract dissidents from dissenting.  It seems to work here.

Best,
Michael

Michael H. Goldhaber

Bruce Sterling wrote:

> *One wonders what the strategic Iranian infowar response
> to this should be. Maybe "Americanonymity."  -- bruces
>
> http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/55/32567.html
>
>
>
>   A pact between the U.S. government and the electronic privacy company
> Anonymizer, Inc. is making the Internet a safer place for controversial
> websites and subversive opinions -- if you're Iranian.
>
> This month Anonymizer began providing Iranians with free access to a Web
> proxy service designed to circumvent their government's online censorship
> efforts. In May, government ministers issued a blacklist of 15,000
> forbidden "immoral" websites that ISPs in the country must block --
> reportedly a mix of adult sites and political news and information outlets.
>   An estimated two million Iranians have Internet access.
>
>
>
>
>
> "Dissident sites, religious sites, the L.L. Bean catalog -- we point them
> to the Voice of America site, but they can go anywhere," says Ken Berman,
> program manager for Internet anticensorship at the IBB, "They're free
> explore the Internet in an unfettered fashion."
>
> Mostly unfettered. Like the Iranian filters, the U.S. service blocks porn
> sites -- "There's a limit to what taxpayers should pay for," says Berman.
> But the United States' hope is that a freer flow of online information will
> improve America's image in the Arab world. The service is similar to one
> Anonymizer provided to Chinese citizens under a previous government
> contract that ran-out ended earlier this year.
>
>

--


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