The Blame Deflector is a product that is becoming very trendy among Iranian authorities. Once taken, its main effects are blocking the conscience receptors, and dissolving the testes in a short span, so the user can then effortlessly lift liability from his shoulders and drop it on the floor, or throw it in the air, for the next user to deal with it. Recent heavy users of the product have been Mortazavi and Radan who have emphasized that responsibility over the Kahrizak atrocities does not fall within their domain. I remember Jafari of the IRGC also mentioned that in the post-election crackdowns, his organization was taking orders from “above”. In the case of female users, well, we don’t have too many of those among Iranian authorities.
Although the product has been around for a long time – millennia according to some accounts – as I said its popularity is on the rise at this juncture. We don’t necessarily view this negatively, as this recent squirming is a sign that the fellows high up on the ladder of power in Iran are worrying about something. But my case is not about politicians here.
A few days ago, Iran’s telecommunications company, TCI, announced that internet filtering is not their doing, and that the responsible party is an affiliated company called Zirsaakht, or TIC.
This is while TIC claims that they only implement the policies handed down to them by a committee in which they do not have a representative.
Back in August, TCI’s PR man, in reaction to a US claim that an anti-blocking system is undergoing tests and will be available to users in Iran and China for bypassing the government filters, said that TCI and TIC have been active in taking measures against this technology.
All the while, a new “Access Denied” page, different from the regular pages issued by each ISP, appeared before the Iranian New Year (about eight months ago). This page is a redirect to yet another sister company of the TCI, called the DCI or Data Communications of Iran.
Now, the above mentioned committee announced a few days ago, that new censorship laws are in the works and will be implemented soon.
Confused? No matter. While TIC, TAC and TOE decide what other evil websites to block, or whom they want to give the responsibility to, I am happy to announce that for reasons unknown, TOR is back up again and VPN connections have been stable since a couple of days ago. I will take this opportunity to get back to rambling and catching up.
Tags: censorship, internet, internet filtering