Monday
Jun212010
UPDATED Iran Special: EA Unfiltered by Authorities
Monday, June 21, 2010 at 19:00 
UPDATE 21 JUNE: It looks like our award may have been taken away. Word comes in from a source in Tehran that the filter on EA has been removed.UPDATE 14 JUNE, 2030 GMT: Word comes in from Iran that the Iranian authorities have removed the filter on Race for Iran, perhaps their most vocal supporter amongst non-Iranian websites.
EA, however, continues to wear its badge of honour proudly --- we are still blocked.
All of which raises an intriguing question. Are Iranian officials so jittery that they slapped on a mass filter of all WordPress-based sites and are now "clearing" those like RFI who are seen as being on their side? Or was this an example of a bureaucracy which made a mistake in its cyber-policy?
In the 366 days that we have covered post-election Iran, we have received many plaudits, but one achievement has always eluded us.
Until now.
This weekend we learned ---after hundreds of blogposts, thousands of tweets, and countless comments on EA --- that we have finally been filtered in Iran.
The Latest from Iran (13 June): And So It Goes On….
We are not very keen on censorship. We remember also that we are not the only recipient of this award: thousands of other websites have been blocked or filtered by the Iranian regime. We hope that readers in Iran, and in other countries which filter websites like ours, still find a way to reach us, and we thank those who assist in that effort.
For the moment, however, we would like to bask in the glory of this recognition. Surely we can appreciate that our dedication to the promotion of the Iranian people rather than the agenda of the Iranian state, our belief that "Iran" should not be reduced to the nuclear issue, our hope that rights and justice are not merely rhetorical playthings has finally been acknowledged by the powers that be in Tehran?
But wait....
We learn that we were not alone in receiving the Unsafe to Read accolade yesterday. It appears that Race for Iran --- perhaps the most vocal, self-promoting website defending the Iranian Government --- was also put on the blacklist.
Sigh --- I guess anyone can get a Bad Foreign Agent of Pernicious Velvet Evil award from President Ahmadinejad and his friends these days.
Reader Comments (17)
Scott,
Congratulations to this dubious honour ;-)
Perhaps Iranian readers can overcome the filtering with Psiphon, offered by Jaras: https://bepich.com/a.php?token=f401022a995f40b2...
Arshama
As for Race for Iran being blocked, it can only be because the foot soldiers of the Iranian Cyber Army were sick to death of Eric A. Brill badgering everyone who so much as breathes over there to not only read his 'article' (or rather, as one RFI commenter more accurately describes it, his "blog entry. Not peer reviewed, a narrative review. Secondary analysis."), but to read it *more thoroughly*, as he urged a commenter who protested he had already read it: "The question I have is whether you’ve read it thoroughly enough. I think some of your comments would be much sharper if you would first take the time to see how they’ve already been addressed in my article.“
The poor Cyber-Basiji must have said: ENOUGH IS ENOUGH -this is worse than what they do to those greenie buggers they picked up on Ashura and threw into Jail 59 at Eshratabad military base! Let's just filter the damn thing and spare ourselves the torment of having to read his shite everyday!
Yup - it was definitely the comments section that did the Leveretts in.
Congratulations, Scott. Truth is an enemy to tyranny, and the snakes of the Iranian regime have finally discovered that you are a machine that cannot tell a lie.
Like George Washington.
I hope that one day I may join you in having this dubious honor placed upon the mantle of http://dissectednews.com" rel="nofollow">http://dissectednews.com so that we may feel, together, the sting of being awesome.
Congrats Sir. Makes me wonderfully proud to have been able to contribute to this. This is probably the most obvious way of knowing that you are in fact making a difference.
[...] Iran Special: EA Gets Highest Award from Tehran Government … [...]
Scott,
Congratulations.
When your site is blocked by the Islamic Republic it is considered recognition of the fact that your site has something useful to offer.
When there is a file against you in the Islamic Republic judiciary and/or if you have been jailed by the regime it means that you must be saying and/or doing the right thing.
When regime-organized thugs insult you in their demonstrations it is a status symbol.
When the Islamic Republic Broadcasting bad mouths you it means that your words/actions are actually having a positive effect.
Did someone say something about regime legitimacy?
Regards.
Lot of good that shilling for the current regime did for the Leveretts! That's hilarious.
But as to you Scott - you deserve it! Congratulations of sorts are in order for a filtering well-deserved!
Hmm... you could be onto something. By the way,
"The question I have is whether you’ve read it thoroughly enough. I think some of your comments would be much sharper if you would first take the time to see how they’ve already been addressed in my article.“
That was far more subtle than I would be. It's imbued with a delightfully passive-aggressive taunting all its own, though.
Islamic Psuedo Republic is filtering EA?? Does that mean we no longer have to read nonsense of IR Cyber Basiji, the likes of M.Ali and Rezvan?? What a ttreat. Thank you EA for making IR do this. Thank you indeed.
I think Islamic Republic decided to fire Leveretts and Eric Bi; they failed miserably to make Ahmadi looking legit.
I fear not Megan - everybody in Iran EXCEPT Samuel, Rezvan and M.Ali will not be able to read EA.
For now at least??
Barry
test
RFI is the abbreviation for “Radio Frequency Interference”; a method that Islamic Republic has extensively and proficiently used in the past year to hamper flow of communication. It is poetic that its paid supporters in the US identify themselves as RFI.
I am not surprised to hear that Islamic Republic is issuing a permit for RFI and keeping it a part of its mafia family.
Scott,
"We Are The Champions" on special request :-)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sogKUx_q7ig" rel="nofollow">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sogKUx_q7ig
Did you know that Freddy Mercury - rouhash shaad - was a Parsi, i.e. a member of the Persian Zoroastrian minority in India? Well chosen...
Arshama
I can't wait to leave this information in the comments section of my next Huffington Post piece. Thank you, Ahmadinejad, for lifting the ban on Race for Iran.
I'll gloat forever.
I did notice that Samuel stopped posting once the site was blocked in Iran. Maybe now he'll come back for more. As long as the Iranian people are allowed to see Khamenei/Ahmadinejad's lies exposed on a daily basis, that's fine by me.
Actually, I believe Samuel stopped posting shortly after Disqus was implemented.
This just in from a reader:
"Confirming from Iran, EA is still blocked here but I'm very reluctant to post just in case Nokia/Siemens have gone much deeper than BP to offer a New Spying Packet to IRI in which case I would find myself in deep sh*t :-)"
Scott