The Islamic Republic of Iran has been and remains one of the world’s harshest censors of the Internet, frequently blocking sites that are deemed “immoral” and politically offensive to the unelected authorities in power. Dissident bloggers and journalists of diverse ethnic, political and religious backgrounds are imprisoned and at times even executed for expressing their views online. Websites like “Virgin Atlantic” and “the American Anthropological Association” are blocked for merely containing words or phrases that are perceived anti-Islamic by the ruling elites in Tehran. In many ways, the Internet is viewed by the ruling clerics as potentially a dangerous domain, which requires harsh measures to control its content. There are paradoxes in this issue like other aspects of politics in Iran; the government censoring of the Internet does not follow a systematic pattern and the more famous the blogger the harder it is for the authorities to harass her/him. The recent death of Mirsayafi in the Evin prison - a less known blogger with an obscure blog who insulted the supreme leader - demonstrates these paradoxes well.
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