Iran Fights Internet Freedom

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    Date: 
    1 February 2011

    The Iranian government has blocked the Iranian people from accessing thousands of websites; it has slowed down the speed of the Internet in Iran to a maddening crawl; and it has used the Internet to track down protestors and their families. It has also jailed Iranian bloggers, and given several severely long prison sentences.

    Now the Iranian government says it stepping up its efforts to patrol and control the Internet. It has announced the formation of a new cyber police force whose targets specifically include anti-government websites and political dissidents using social networking sites. "Through these very social networks in our country, anti-revolutionary groups and dissidents found each other and contacted foreign countries and triggered riots," Iran's chief police official Brigadier General Esmail Ahmadi-Moghaddam said, as he announced the launch of the first new cyber police unit. "There is no time to wait," he said. "We will have cyber police all over Iran."