Iran to kill Internet and launch a “clean” alternative

When it comes to freedom to view what you want on the Internet there some countries in the world that are very oppressive with names like China and Iran jumping to mind. China has for a long time filtered content on the Internet its government deems objectionable. Iran is said to have even bigger plans to filter what its citizens can and can’t see online. Iran intends to completely disconnect the Internet from the country and launch its own “clean” alternative according to a report.

Iran will institute a nationwide intranet that would be isolated from the regular Internet and heavily regulated by the government. This plan was apparently first proposed in 2011 and is aimed at ordinary citizens while some so-called “elite” users continue to have access to the standard Internet. Elite users would include banks, ministries, and big companies. The Iranian government is also said to be creating its own custom e-mail service and national search engine called Ya Haq.

To be able to get an e-mail account with Ya Haq, users would have to register their identity with the government. Presumably, the government would be able to read all the e-mails sent and received. Rumors had originally pegged Iran’s custom Internet service would be launching in August, but that was later denied by Iranian officials. The original report of Iran’s plans to kill the real Internet within its country surfaced from a Reporters without Borders report. Iran is now denying that it intends to cut Internet access inside the country of all calling to report “completely baseless.” That said, Iran apparently admitted that it does have plans to establish a “national information network.”

[via ArsTechnica]