Iran Cuts off Access to YouTube

The article that I chose to elaborate upon this week is titled “Iran Cuts off Access to YouTube Website.” The article goes on to explain how and why Iran has blocked access to TouTube.com. It is said that when users attempted to call up the video- sharing site on Tuesday, they were met with the message, “On the basis of the Islamic Republic of Iran Laws, access to this website is not authorized.” It was speculated that the site had been blocked for approximately 5 days. Supposedly the Shiite cleric-run government regularly blocks opposition Web Sites including blogs, and unauthorized messages.
It was said that there were videos from the Mujahedeen Khalq and other Iranian opposition groups have been posted on the site. The site also was housing pop music videos from Iran, which are frowned upon by the religious leadership. It was said by reporters in the Country, “censorship is now the rule rather than the exception”. They stated that the government is trying to create a digital border to stop culture and news from coming to Iran.
Iran is simply out of control in my opinion. Even the thought of this country, or any country for that matter, censoring websites that simply show videos is insane. After living in a country where freedom of speech is not only allowed, its encouraged, seeing something like this seems so foreign and makes little sense. But then again, Iran is a lot different then the United States. In my opinion, I don’t think Iran should even have the Internet. They don’t deserve it if they don’t like youTube.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-0612060120dec06,1,3957375.story?coll=chi-newsnationworld-hed