According to an International Business Times report, Iranian authorities are going to shut down the access to Internet by August. Information and Communications Technology minister Reza Taghipour stated that a national Intranet is being introduced in order to provide a “clean Internet” to the country. Phase one of this massive closing of the world wide web over on the Iranian web will see the first roll out starting from next month and it will see the major and popular sites including Google, Hotmail blocked and will be replaces with government Intranet alternatives in the country.
Other services are likely to remain available until August when the government plans to introduce a full-on blockage of the Worldwide Web, as Taghipour confirmed in a statement: ”all Internet Service Providers (ISP) should only present National Internet by August.” Taghipor further said that the open Internet ”promotes crime, disunity, unhealthy moral content, and atheism” leaving the government with no choice but to rid the country of these “scourges.”
There will be exceptions, for services that are on the government’s ‘white-list’, but by-and-large Iranian Internet users will be closed out of the Web when the government hits the kill switch later this year. Regular readers will not be surprised to learn of this move as Iran has been making steps towards a Web blackout for some time. The country even yesterday blocked London 2012 Olympics website.
