News

When Thomas Erdbrink, The Washington Post’s correspondent in Tehran,
logs on to the Internet in Iran, he never knows whether Gmail and Google
Reader, The Post or Facebook will open for him. Increasingly, this is
the error message he sees instead of the page he was trying to reach:

Translation: “According to computer crime regulations, access to this Web site is denied.”

Iranian bloggers have long used a workaround, by connecting to the
Internet and then switching to a special connection that bypasses the
country’s extremely effective firewall. But Erdbrink reports Thursday that the software recently has stopped working.

Many fear the failing software indicates Iran’s so-called “National Internet” is on the horizon. The government has said the National Internet can be launched at any time. Erdrink reports:

The government’s technology officials have announced the
construction of a domestic internet network comparable to an office
intranet, which would block many popular sites .... Officials stres... >>>