Iran posts long list of banned websites in cyber crackdown: report

An Iranian youth browses a political blog at an Internet cafe in the city of Hamadan

Iran struggles to batten down the hatches on the Islamic Republic bubble they hope wont burst. Islamic regimes like communists one's can only work - when information coming in is strictly regulated. Freedom - there seems to be no place for it. The question is now how long can they keep their people in religious bondage.


TEHRAN (AFP)— The Iranian judicial authorities have published a long list of banned Internet websites in a new crackdown on online networks, including those deemed immoral, the press reported on Thursday.

They said the list, drawn up by a "committee of experts," bans any site that contains pornography, prostitution, sexual deviation or anything considered to be "contrary to the morals of society" in the Islamic republic.

Websites containing material "contrary to security and social peace" as well as those seen by the authorities as "hostile to government officials and institutions" bound to lead to "crimes" are also banned.

According to the list published in several Tehran newspapers, anyone found guilty of using such websites could be jailed for several years in line with a law on Internet "offences" passed in parliament more than a year ago.

Internet users are also prohibited from posting articles that violate "religious values," that "insult Islam and other recognised world religions, saints and prophets," the reports said.

Any articles that "insult Imam Khomeini and supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei" are banned, the reports added in reference to the founder of the Islamic republic and his successor.

Articles "contrary to the constitution, that support hostile political groups or are used as propaganda against the regime of the Islamic republic" are also banned.

The sale of software that can bypass bypass filter systems used by the authorities is also forbidden, the reports said.

The authorities have tried for years to clamp down on Internet use, frequently blocking access to sites used by opponents of the government and those with sexual content.

The use of the Internet was a central point in the opposition movement against the disputed re-election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in June, with users crowding social networking websites such as Facebook and blogs.

Internet lines, texting services and at times also mobile phone connections have been cut or scrambled since Ahmadinejad's contested re-election.