Iranian Government Blocks Google
Can you imagine living in a society where one day the government decides it’s not so into that whole “Google thing” and decides to up and block it for the whole country? Well, that’s what happened in Iran.
It’s commonplace and even fun in the United States to complain about Google. They’re too big, have too much power over user information, make silly acquisitions with the billions of dollars that they find in the couch cushions of their luxuriant Mountain View, California offices, and so forth.
Personally, as a web publisher, I have had frustrating experiences dealing with Google. Finding a human being who will listen to a legitimate query with regard to Google’s famously mysterious search algorithm and Page Rank system can be an exercise in masochism (though to their credit they have improved at this over the last year or two).
But really Google is an extraordinary search engine, a ubiquitous term that means being able to sort through millions upon millions of web pages and find information nearly instantly – from the entertaining to educational to profane – that only a few short years back would require tedious hours of research.
Clearly, Iran’s government is afraid of what its people would do with such a powerful window upon the world. While it claims to be concerned about moral corruption and foreign influence, it’s not hard to believe that the real concern is to maintain its grip on power.
To quote the great Tenacious D: the government totally sucks.
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September 18th, 2007 at 5:28 am
Eric,
I suggest to you that there may be more to all this than meets the eye. Iran has an activist foreign policy and has definite plans to change things in the neighborhood. They view themselves as an empire, and may well be preparing for a war. If they block Yahoo! as well, you can bet your bottom dinar that something is up. And that something ain’t going to be nice.
G’mar Hatima Tova,
Reuven
September 18th, 2007 at 8:08 am
Thankfully Google isn’t blocked here, but Wikipedia is. As are all sorts of random webpages.
September 18th, 2007 at 9:56 am
Ruvy - Iran blocks its citizens from accessing Google as an indicator of coming war? Would make more sense if they were blocking information leaving the country somehow. Not sure how that adds up, but maybe I haven’t had enough coffee yet this morning
Mat - Wikipedia blocked in China, eh? Wacky. I think we might need to make you our OMC Asian correspondent!