Iran blocks Google engine search and Gmail

YEREVAN, September 25. / ARKA /. Iran has cut off access to Google search and Gmail ‘to improve cyber security,’ Novosti Armenia reports citing RIA Novosti, which in turn quotes BBC. A government deputy minister announced the new controls on Sunday as state television announced that Google's search engine and its email service would be blocked "within a few hours".

"Google and Gmail will be filtered throughout the country until further notice," the official said.
It is not the first time the Islamic state has cut off Google services, only to restore them later.

The Iranian Students' News Agency (ISNA) said the Google ban was connected to the anti-Islamic film posted on the company's YouTube site, which has caused outrage throughout the Muslim world.
Iran has one of the biggest Internet filters of any country in the world, preventing everyday Iranians from accessing countless sites on the official grounds that they are offensive or criminal.

But many Iranians commonly overcome the government filter by using virtual private network software that makes the computer appear as if it is based in another country. Iranian officials have long spoken of creating an Iranian Internet system that would be largely isolated from the World Wide Web.

"In recent days, all governmental agencies and offices have been connected to the national information network," Deputy Communications and Technology Minister Ali Hakim-Javadi was quoted as saying by the Mehr News Agency. The second phase of the plan would be to connect ordinary Iranians to the national network, he said.

According to Iranian media, the domestic system would be fully implemented by March next year, but it was not clear whether access to the global Internet would be cut once the Iranian system is rolled out. -0-