{"id":67704,"date":"2013-03-13T21:01:08","date_gmt":"2013-03-13T19:01:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/?p=67704"},"modified":"2014-01-08T01:16:48","modified_gmt":"2014-01-07T23:16:48","slug":"iran-blocks-off-web-creates-internal-internet","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/2013\/03\/13\/iran-blocks-off-web-creates-internal-internet\/","title":{"rendered":"Iran Blocks off Web, Creates Internal Internet"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>AN EXAMPLE TURKEY MIGHT FOLLOW SHORTHLY<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-67705\" alt=\"iran network\" src=\"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/03\/iran-network.jpg\" width=\"563\" height=\"233\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/03\/iran-network.jpg 944w, https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/03\/iran-network-300x124.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/03\/iran-network-768x318.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 563px) 100vw, 563px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>VPNs are used by many Iranians to route around censorship of websites like Facebook, YouTube, and many international news outlets. \u201cWithin the last few days, illegal VPN ports in the country have been blocked,\u201d\u00a0Ramezanali Sobhani-Fard, head of the Iranian parliament\u2019s information and technology committee, told state media,\u00a0according to a Reuters translation. \u201cOnly legal and registered VPNs can from now on be used.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s not entirely clear why Iran moved to cut off the loophole now, but the timing is suggestive. Government officials\u00a0had previously said\u00a0the domestic intranet would be ready by this month, which could mean the VPN ban is a precursor to a wider rollout of the new system. And the presidential election, Iran\u2019s first since widespread protests broke out in 2009, is coming up in June.<\/p>\n<p>Iran hasn\u2019t said how it plans to implement the domestic intranet. North Korea, for instance,\u00a0restricts almost all internet traffic\u00a0to a government-controlled network, effectively sealing off the country from the rest of the internet. Iran could do that, as well, but access to international websites is essential for an increasing number of Iranian businesses, and severe censorship could inflame a restive populace in Tehran.<\/p>\n<p>Instead,\u00a0Iran seems likely\u00a0to provide\u00a0its own version of the internet\u00a0while limiting access to the broader World Wide Web by blocking some sites and slowing down access to others, which it already does. But at sensitive moments, like the upcoming election, Iran could seal off the web entirely, and the new VPN ban will help enforce that sequestration. A robust domestic intranet, complete with its own\u00a0alternative to YouTube, could make the restrictions viable, though Iranians have previously\u00a0been successful agitating for access\u00a0to international web services like Google\u2019s Gmail.<\/p>\n<p>The June election is\u00a0likely to solidify the power\u00a0of supreme leader\u00a0Ayatollah Khamenei, who said earlier this month, \u201cThose who may offer general advice about the elections\u2014and it could be out of compassion\u2014that the elections should be like this or that, should take care not to further the goal of the enemy.\u201d President\u00a0Mahmood Ahmadinejad, facing term limits, isn\u2019t on the ballot.\u00a0All of the candidates to replace him are seen as loyal to Khamenei. The most viable opposition candidates have been in jail since the 2009 protests.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>AN EXAMPLE TURKEY MIGHT FOLLOW SHORTHLY &nbsp; VPNs are used by many Iranians to route around censorship of websites like Facebook, YouTube, and many international news outlets. \u201cWithin the last few days, illegal VPN ports in the country have been blocked,\u201d\u00a0Ramezanali Sobhani-Fard, head of the Iranian parliament\u2019s information and technology committee, told state media,\u00a0according to [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":83,"featured_media":67705,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[89],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-67704","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-turkey"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67704","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/83"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=67704"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67704\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/67705"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=67704"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=67704"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=67704"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}