Iranian authorities are restating their commitment to launching their own parallel internet, an alternative to the World Wide Web that they call “Clean Internet.”
Reza Taghipour, Minister of Communications and Information Technology, told the Mehr News Agency today: “The existence of security threats as well as cultural, social and moral threats, has led many countries to launch a parallel internet network alongside the World Wide Web.”
He went on to add that the internet cannot be trusted. Similar sentiments were expressed a few days ago by Iranian Intelligence Minister Heydar Moslehi, who said: “The Internet is not a tool for threats; it is a threat in and of itself.”
Taghipour pointed to the International Telecommunications Union’s decision to designate 2009 as the year of Child Online Safety as proof that the internet, despite its advantages, can “pose harms, especially to countries that value national, family and religious values.”
The solution, he concluded, is the “clean internet.”
Iranian authorities have been saying for months that they are launching a “National Internet” or “Clean internet”; however, so far it has not been accomplished.
China and North Korea have already established a National Internet that does not allow access to all the sites available on the World Wide Web.
Reporters Without Borders has denounced the Islamic Republic’s plan for a national internet as a move against free speech, aimed at greater censorship and control over netizens.
