Iran Outlaws VPNs Or Any Other Attempt To Get Around Filters

from the how-nice dept

Thu, Oct 27th 2011 9:31am — Mike Masnick

If you're going to censor the internet, I guess you also have to criminalize attempts to get around the filters. That appears to be what's happened in Iran, where any kind of system to get around the filters, including VPNs, has been criminalized. Iran now gets to join Pakistan in banning VPNs.

�Based on the law, the use of VPNs or other antifiltering software is forbidden and considered a crime,�

Amusingly, the reasoning given is that VPNs are part of a "soft war" from Western countries, and blocking them is a way to "confront" such Western aggression.

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Filed Under: censorship, circumvention, filters, iran, vpns

27 Comments

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E. Zachary Knight (profile), 27 Oct 2011 @ 9:37am

And with E-PARASITE, the US is on the path to outlaw them as well. Looks like we are becoming one big happy Fascist family.
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- Anonymous Coward, 27 Oct 2011 @ 10:15am
  
  Re:
  Hell, the pro E-PARASITE guys must be watching this very carefully. After all, Iran is their living test lab on how to impose strong and anti-privacy laws.
  
  I can see anti-vpn laws coming out of DC very soon with big money backing (Bribing?) it.
  
  Come on guys, you know you can buy this law too. What are you waiting for?
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  - btr1701 (profile), 27 Oct 2011 @ 10:43am
    
    Re: Re:
    > I can see anti-vpn laws coming out of DC
    > very soon with big money backing (Bribing?) it.
    
    But unlike Iran, they won't be banned completely. Only you and I will be disallowed VPNs. The big companies who write the checks will be given an exemption and allowed to keep using them.
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    - Michael Lockyear, 27 Oct 2011 @ 11:50am
      
      ...politicians of course will be exempt...
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- Anonymous Coward, 27 Oct 2011 @ 4:02pm
  
  Re:
  We must vote out all these dems and reps so we can take back our government...............
  either that or another civil war better yet a bloodless coup.
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Killercool (profile), 27 Oct 2011 @ 9:37am

Tired old ... stuff, but...
If VPNs are outlawed, only outlaws will use VPNs...

I mean, of course, all the "bad guys" will stop doing "bad things" forever.

Since the threat of getting fined will work.

Seeing as how the death penalty has stopped all murders...
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- Anonymous Coward, 27 Oct 2011 @ 9:51am
  
  Re: Tired old ... stuff, but...
  Obviously you have not been in Iran in the last 20 years as the threat is not to be fined but to be shortened as off with the head.
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  - Lord Binky, 27 Oct 2011 @ 11:01am
    
    Re: Re: Tired old ... stuff, but...
    Don't forget that it's a public manual heigth adjustment as well. It is also more than just a brutal detatchment from the living, they do it because they also believe that removing the head screws them out of their afterlife, just in case y'know?
    
    Really though, it could just be imprisonment until they get around to you(or remember you're there). Maybe they're taking it for a test run and just removing hands so they don't have to worry about the whole internet thing from them again? Nah, they're likely just going to kill them so they don't have to worry about revenge.
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- BW (profile), 27 Oct 2011 @ 1:36pm
  
  If you mean the death? penalty? we have in the U.S.
  Where people don't get executed for 20 years if ebver, then you're right. If you mean an actual, working death penalty, then you're dead wrong.
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Anonymous Coward, 27 Oct 2011 @ 9:42am

And how many of our elected morons will chastise Iran for this even as they push through a bill that will do the same thing in the US. Fuckin hypocrites. The revolution is coming.
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Yogi, 27 Oct 2011 @ 9:49am

US next
I've been wondering when the USA, I mean the RIAA, will outlaw VPNs and also traffic encryption. You can't really censor the net efficiently when people can encrypt their traffic and remain anonymous.
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Anonymous Coward, 27 Oct 2011 @ 9:50am

VPNs for web surfing are very likely to end up on history's junk pile. They may exist, but only if they are transparent and indicate where the original traffic is coming from. I doubt anyone will want that.
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Ninja (profile), 27 Oct 2011 @ 9:56am

OMG, I can't believe a democracy like Iran would... gasp... CENSOR the internetz!!!

Ahem, jokes apart, there's only so much the people can take down their throats. We'll see Iran/Pakistan springs except that I think it'll be a tad more bloody.
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Anonymous Coward, 27 Oct 2011 @ 9:56am

The more I read about politics and politicians, the more I'm convinced that humans are really fucked up at a very fundamental level. It's easy to criticize countries like Pakistan and Iran (and rightfully so), but then you have assholes doing terrible things in so-called democratic countries and many of those same critics just shut their eyes and say nothing, or worse pretend that their own country's intentions are noble instead of evil.
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- :Lobo Santo (profile), 27 Oct 2011 @ 10:02am
  
  Re: Congrats!
  You've done an excellent job of describing pretty much the entirety of the "news" media in general.
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Anonymous Coward, 27 Oct 2011 @ 10:15am

I think the headline is wrong
It should read: "Iran shuts off internet-based commerce with the rest of the world."
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Anonymous Coward, 27 Oct 2011 @ 10:17am

Thus neatly outlawing security...
...since a primary component of security in the contemporary Internet environment is end-to-end encryption. It will be interesting to see what the impact is on Iran's commercial environment when the full effects of this are realized.
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- Prisoner 201, 27 Oct 2011 @ 10:53am
  
  Re: Thus neatly outlawing security...
  Don't worry, they will only enforce the law when they feel like throwing someone in jail.
  
  People bringing in good money will be safe.
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  - Lord Binky, 27 Oct 2011 @ 11:05am
    
    Re: Re: Thus neatly outlawing security...
    Wait, you can just selectively enforce laws? Oh shit, I hope noone here figures that out.....
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    - Anonymous Coward, 27 Oct 2011 @ 7:51pm
      
      Re: Re: Re: Selective Enforcement
      Oh, good old selective enforcement has been around in USA for ever. Did you notice the world's largest financial fraud happening in 2008? Then the poor old US taxpayer picks up the tab? All sorts of flagrantly illegal fraudulent stuff happened. Yet none of the real bad guys went to jail for it. There should be hundreds of them in jail for long stretches. Did that happen? Nope, courtesy the magic of selective enforcement.
      
      There should be desperate attempts to recover the money. Is that happening? Nope, selective enforcement again.
      
      There should be a huge on-going public discussion. Did that happen? Not officially, but the "occupy" movements are just starting the discussion now. Any sign of the politicians having any sympathy for the ordinary people? What do you think?
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anonymous, 27 Oct 2011 @ 10:21am

load of bollocks, as we all know. just another day in the life of a dictatorship. trouble is, how long before everywhere else follows them? it's well on the cards!
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Christopher (profile), 27 Oct 2011 @ 10:24am

Pah! Like anyone in Iran is going to pay attention to this, to be blunt.
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Rob, 27 Oct 2011 @ 11:21am

Not long before we do the same
I'm sure the good old USA will find a way to do this as well.
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- Anonymous Coward, 28 Oct 2011 @ 2:28am
  
  Re: Not long before we do the same
  Indeed. They'll bellow a few times about infringement and child porn and whatever excuses they usually make, and then flail around trying to ban proxies and VPNs, maybe even HTTPS.
  
  After all, if the people in charge weren't shortsighted idiots with no idea what they're doing, we wouldn't be in this mess in the first place.
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Michael Lockyear, 27 Oct 2011 @ 11:58am

When VPN's become illegal, TOR over hacked WiFi will just take its place (and probably more secure)...
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Thomas (profile), 27 Oct 2011 @ 3:11pm

Congress...
here wants to restrict the internet just as much as Iran and China, except they are calling it "Protect IP", but it has the same result - censoring the Internet.
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Jonathan Chance, 27 Oct 2011 @ 4:05pm

Ayatollah Audrey Barnhart would love it.
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