If You Can’t Beat Them, Ban Them: Iran’s Position on Communications

Last May, Iran slowed or blocked traffic to social sites like Facebook, YouTube and Twitter ahead of and during the contested presidential elections. Now, the Wall Street Journal reports that Iran is “permanently suspending” Google’s Gmail in favor of a state backed program for Iranians. Guess they weren’t a fan of Buzz.

The official reason for the move is that the plug is being pulled to support local technology. Unofficially, anyone who’s witnessed the heavy-handed crackdown on government opposition demonstrators sees it as a move to stifle organization opportunities for any anti-government protesters, expected to turn out during celebrations of the 31st anniversary of the Islamic Republic.

Increasingly, the real sign of popularity and user adoption for social sites and communication tools seems to come from making an appearance on the Iranian government’s banned or blocked list. A rundown of websites and communication tools blacked out in Iran.

• Gmail
• Facebook
• Twitter
• YouTube
• the Internet (reportedly slowed to a crawl)
• text and mobile messaging (reportedly slowed to a crawl)
• Voice Over IP (VOIP) services