Iran increasingly controls its Internet [Update 6]
Washington Post wrote: TEHRAN — Whenever an Iranian blogger, connects to the Internet from his office, they switches on a special connection that for years would bypass the Islamic republic’s increasingly effective firewall. But recently the software, which allowed them to go online through portals elsewhere in the world, stopped working. When it sporadically returns, speeds are so excruciatingly slow that sites such as Facebook become unusable. [SNIP] Many fear that the disabling of the software used to bypass the state-run firewall heralds the coming of what authorities have labeled the National Internet. The government’s technology officials have announced the construction of a domestic Internet network comparable to an office intranet, which would block many popular sites. They have hinted the National Internet can be launched at any time, and have said it will gradually start working over the coming three years. ...