For years, the Iranian regime has talked about a giant Intranet that the government wants to build for all of its citizens, which would isolate the Iranian cyberspace from the rest of the world.
The country already has one of the world’s toughest Internet censorship regimes: it routinely blocks thousands of websites deemed offensive, immoral or threatening to the country’s national security. Not long ago, the government unveiled its next step in their efforts to control ordinary people’s online activities: it launched an Iran-only search engine called “Yooz”.
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| www.yooz.ir |
According to the project manager, Mehdi Naghavi the domestic search engine will help Iranians circumvent the US-led economic sanctions and will introduce the Persian web to academia.
But as always, the pervasive filtering and the harsh restrictions have had an unintended consequence: large numbers of Iranians internet users have become skilled in using various circumvention technologies such as VPNs or software which provide uncensored access to the Internet, such as Psiphon and Tor.
Based on these, last week’s news came definitely out of the blue: Iran could allow internet giants such as Google to operate in the country if they respect Iran’s cultural rules, a senior official has said.
As Nasrollah Jahangard, the deputy telecommunications and information technology minister put it: “We are not opposed to any of the entities operating in global markets who want to offer services in Iran.”
Jahangard said in a press conference that sanctions imposed on Iran might “create problems for American companies”. But while US firms are waiting for the international legal conditions to be cleared, having in mind that the deadline for the agreement is approaching and both sides are positive about the outcome, companies outside the US have already started negotiations. Although he didn’t mention any firm specifically, he said that “some have accepted the conditions” laid out by Iran adding that “technical preparations are under way for them to enter the Iranian market.”