Iran's President-Elect: Net Filtering Doesn't Work... Oh, And By The Way, Human Rights Are Universal
from the he-said-what??? dept
In the past, Iran has provided plenty of light relief here on Techdirt, whether because of plans to build its own Internet, or thanks to weird stuff like this. But it looks like those days are over
following the election of a surprisingly-moderate President, Hassan Rouhani. Here, for example, are his thoughts on Net filters, as reported by The Guardian:
"Supporters of internet filtering should explain whether they've successfully restricted access to information? Which important piece of news has filtering been able to black out in recent years?"
That's a pretty remarkable statement, since it comes from a nation that has tried to impose Net censorship more rigorously than most. It's also important, because it underlines why Western countries that keep flirting with the idea of introducing Net filtering are simply wasting their time. Rouhani has some other points that Western leaders would do well to remember:
He added: "Filtering has not even stopped people from accessing unethical [a reference to pornographic] websites. Widespread online filtering will only increase distrust between people and the state.""Injustice is an injustice...it's a double standard to call an injustice in an unfriendly country as an injustice but to label the same thing in a friendly country as not...human rights is same in any place around the world."
It's early days yet, and it remains to be seen whether the new President will be able to push through reforms in the face of conservative resistance in Iran. But it certainly looks like we might be seeing some interesting stories coming out of Iran soon, even if they are not so amusing as those Techdirt has carried in the past.
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Filed Under: civil liberties, free speech, hassan rouhani, internet filtering, iran
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Re:
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In reality, we have crackpots with access to fertilizer, planes, and pressure-cookers.
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In the meantime lone wolves (1-5 people total within the same geographical area is my definition which goes a little further than the strict definition) are by far more dangerous. Boston bombers, Breivik, London murderers and all the serial killers in USA, including the school massacres, are what we cannot predict through intelligence gathering.
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The import thing is to stay anti-U.S. policy
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Web filtering done right
Explanation: web filters will always block pages incorrectly. This makes you distrust a filter, and want to go to the website to see if the block is correct.
Net result: zero + some extra annoyance.
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Re: Web filtering done right
One website not controlled by the censor accessible = any site not controlled by the censor accessible. (Control also including sympathizing with the censor's ideas.)
Whoever controls any non-censor controlled site can set it up as a proxy, a tor bridge etc.
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http://www.leader.ir/langs/en/index.php?p=leader_law
The supreme leader is appointed by "people's" representatives and I do believe but did not research it that the representatives that make up the council is appointed by the supreme leader.
The presidency is a token position.
A cunning way to simulate the appearance of a just and democratic state. A decoy, a lame duck or whatever one would like to call it.
So I don't believe it will change anything.
Recently though I believe the elections are being used as a compass, signaling in which direction the public is leaning towards and enabling the supreme leader to take show or hide his true motivations and desires.
Meaning, although I don't believe that the Iranian leadership will change its instances, it will make them less likely to spout dictatorial nonsense freely, unless they want to end up with a second revolution in their hands, and this time the supreme leader will not be celebrated as a liberator.
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The odds of Iran having a "second revolution", certainly one that is more secular, are next to nil. The majority of Iranians believe in their system of government, even if they aren't totally happy with some of the excesses.
Compared to US "allies" in the region such as Saudi Arabia and Qatar, which are true monarchical dictatorships, Iran is almost a model democracy. They have a higher voting turnout than the US does. Although the candidates are vetted by the cleric council, I'm not sure that's worse than US candidates being vetted by a corrupt national party leadership angling for corporate contributions.
And before anyone raises the point about the 2009 elections, there is ZERO evidence of vote fraud in that election. Google for Eric Brill's report on that.
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I think the writer misundersatnds something
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If you want real perspectives on Iran
Much of what you read about Iran in the US mainstream media is about as accurate as what you're reading about Snowden.
The main thing to understand is that Iran absolutely does not have a nuclear weapons program and has zero interest in ever having one. Everything you hear from Obama and the MSM on that is a total lie.
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And if you believe that, you believe in pink flying ponies
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