Iran Lifts Ban On Some Google Services, Re-Blocks YouTube
Last week, Iran announced that they would be blocking Google’s search and e-mail service as they deploy their own domestic internet system. The domestic internet service was rolled out to government agencies and offices, and it is their aim to make it available to every Iranian by 2013.
The Google block is deemed as another way Iran is suppressing Internet freedom of their people, but the Iranian Students’ News Agency (ISNA) said the ban was connected to the anti-Islamic film posted on Google’s video-sharing network YouTube, which spurred outrage throughout the Muslim world. However, this theory was not confirmed by the government.
A week after the ban, Iran’s telecommunications ministry committee lifted it stating that it was an involuntary block.
“We wanted to block YouTube, and Gmail was also blocked, which was involuntary.
“We do not yet have enough technical know-how to differentiate between these two services,” Mohammad Reza Miri said.
“We absolutely do not want YouTube to be accessible. That is why the telecommunications ministry is seeking a solution to fix the problem to block YouTube under the HTTPS [Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure] protocol while leaving Gmail accessible.
“That will soon happen.”
The funny thing is, YouTube has been blocked in Iran since 2009, so how were they supposed to block something already blocked, and inadvertently block another service? And stating that they have not enough knowledge to differentiate the two services is just BS, in my opinion. Seriously, how can you block something if you don’t really know what you’re blocking?
Though not confirmed, some are stating that the ban is indeed related to the anti-Muslim video on YouTube and that this is their propaganda, telling the world that they are not just going to sit idly in a corner and watch. They are fighting back. Some also stated that banning Google in Iran is not actually a loss to Iranians as Google would be the one on the losing end at the end of it all, not them.
“Google has removed the name of Persian Gulf from its map and has banned users inside Iran to access many of its services because of sanctions,” wrote Faramarz, from Qazvin.
“Banning the service will bring some losses to Google, although not substantial. I agree with banning it.”
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