Iran’s Separate and Unplugged Internet

According to a recent report from Pavyand Iran News, Iranian authorities plan “to create a separate internet for Iran [that] could leave web users confined to a closed domestic network, [and] cut off from the rest of the world.”

For those who have contemplated buying Persian .COM domain names, you might want to reconsider, as it is not clear whether they will be heavily censored or completely excluded from Iran’s planned intranet.

The justification for this sepratist stance was made by Abdolmajid Riyazi as follows: “If one day we find ourselves trapped with an American monopoly over the web, or if other countries decide to bring down our internet, we need to be [self-sufficient or we] have a problem.”

Thankfully the Pavayand report stated that Iran’s closed off intranet was not going to be up and running anytime soon: “Given the Ahmadinejad administration’s managerial methods, a project like this is going to be completed only [after] a lot of delays . . .”