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The eyes of the world may be on the protests taking place in the streets of Tehran this week, but the technology community is watching just as keenly at the war Iran is waging against the Internet.
In recent days Iran’s government has taken a number of steps to essentially electronically sever the country’s ties to the Internet to prevent citizens from spreading news and pictures of protests against the recent election. So far the efforts appear to be largely in vain as news continues to find its way out on the resilient Internet grid.
Reports have surfaced that the government has switched off routers at the country’s perimeters, ripped satellite dishes off roofs, turned off telephone switches, and even cut cables. But while the efforts have most certainly curtailed access to the Internet, citizens have found ways around the state’s efforts by using services like Twitter to get news and photos to the Web.
Questions have also arisen whether Iran’s efforts to muzzle the Internet are also affecting its financial infrastructure, as banking systems, ATM and credit card services now often rely on the Internet. Either way, the events currently unfolding in Iran will offer a fascinating case study on how the Internet can or cannot be censored during an internal conflict.
During the Georgia war, Russia was able to severely impact access to the Internet, largely because it didn’t care about the effects it would have on communications within Georgia or its technology infrastructure. But in an internal conflict such as the situation in Iran, the government is attempting to shut down social interactions while at the same time keeping the technology infrastructure intact for business and government requirements. Can you, in fact, do both?
One thing is certain. We are watching a new era unfold in the use of social media. Tehran may have kicked most western journalists out of the country, but its citizens have picked up the torch and are leveraging a wide range of social media tools to tell their story.
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