Communications of the ACM
Iran Designing Software For Controlled Social Media Access
An Iranian Internet cafe in central Tehran.
Credit: AFP / Getty Images
Iran is designing intelligent software that would give its citizens limited access to social networking Web sites, according to a local media report. The Iranian government blocks Facebook, Twitter, and other social media sites as part of its strict Internet censorship, but many people use sophisticated software known as VPN, which is illegal, to get around the policy.
Iran has an official filtering mechanism, but the new software would still restrict and control access to the social sites. "Smart control of social networks is better than filtering them completely," says police chief Esmaeil Ahmadi Moghadam.
In 2011, Iran unveiled a cyber police unit to focus on anti-regime conduct online. Iran also plans to create a national intranet that would be free of un-Islamic content. The "National Internet" would not cut access to the Internet, according to authorities.
From Agence France-Presse
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