Iran Disrupts Internet as Elections Loom

With parliamentary elections looming in Iran next month, authorities are ramping up censorship of the opposition, disrupting much of the country's Internet in the process, reports Reuters. Millions are having trouble accessing their email and social networking sites, which played an important role in the protests that followed the dubious presidential election of 2009.

The March 2 elections will be the first national elections since that presidential election. "The government is testing different tools," said one expert. "They might have wanted to see the public reaction." Tehran, however, is denying any role in the online disruptions, which appear to be targeting international websites that use encryption, such as Secure Sockets Layer protocol. "We have never considered Google as appropriate to serve Iranian users, because Google is at the service of the CIA," says one member of Iran's Internet censorship committee. (More Iran stories.)