Iran Blocks Access To GMail

More International Google Woes

[incrediBILL]

Gmail is getting blocked by Iran.

Iran's telecommunications agency announced what it described as a permanent suspension of Google Inc.'s email services, saying a national email service for Iranian citizens would soon be rolled out.

It's all about surveillance, you just can't keep any eye on people using Gmail with those darned SSL servers.

What makes the Iran government's step unusual is that the move isn't about censorship, but about surveillance, Mr. Zittrain added. By having the country's email users on a government-issued email service, the government will have a window into communication that it couldn't otherwise have.

[online.wsj.com...]

[Demaestro]

I would call this another woe for Iranians.

Considering that their last election is almost universally accepted as being rigged the government exercising this level of control over it's citizens is scary.

The protest and riots there are still going on and I can only imagine that this will make the Iranian people even more incensed at their current government.