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IRAN: Surf’s up, in Tehran

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On a recent visit to Iran, I was shocked to discover that one of my favorite blogs — the Huffington Post — was blocked by my Internet service provider.

‘The requested page is Forbidden,’ it said when I tried to log on.

Dejected, I tried to visit another website on the opposite side of the political spectrum, the Drudge Report, only to find that it too was blocked out. My favorite trashy gossip site, TMZ, blocked! Even Wonkette, blocked!

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The warning pages include a space where you can submit the names of websites that might have been blocked in error. I’ve submitted countless websites countless times. But they’ve never reversed a decision. My favorite sites always remain blocked.

Now, it’s easy to understand why the Islamic Republic of Iran wants to filter out pornography websites. Iran, is after all, run by conservative clerics. You can also relate to why they would block the sites of dissident bloggers who wield the Internet as a weapon against the system. The Iranian government, in turn, demands that all Internet service providers filter out a list of websites with adult or anti-establishment content.

But come on! Do they really need to block MySpace? The Seattle Times? The Arizona Republic?

Using one Internet service provider, I found even the Boston Globe’s website was blocked . Are the Red Sox really a threat to anyone except the New York Yankees?

I got curious. I started looking for which sites were blocked and which weren’t. I found out that it was very arbitrary. Oanda, the website I use for converting currency rates, was blocked while Regime Change Iran, was not.

Creative Iranians find their way around everything. Thanks to a couple friends, I discovered a whole subculture devoted to circumventing the filters. Friends e-mail each other ever-changing proxy addresses that let them access whatever site they want.

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The Iranian government filters out the proxies as soon as they find them, but new ones constantly pop up. The demand is just too great, and people are willing to go to great lengths to read and see what they want when they want.

Once in Tehran, I got a phone call from a new Internet service provider. It was a telemarketer. She was offering dial-up Internet rates at a decent price. I was polite, but non-committal. She read my mind, moved in for the kill.

‘For a small added fee,’ she said, ‘we can get you unfiltered Internet.’

— Borzou Daragahi in Beirut

. Credit: Borzou Daragahi

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