Taking Lessons From the Supreme Court

Last week the U.S. Supreme Court upheld a law requiring libraries to filter out pornographic and other adult Web sites from all computer users. Taking a page from the Court's playbook, the ruling mullahs in Iran now use the same filtering technology to suppress free speech and political dissent on the Internet.

Over 140 Web sites promoting opposition to the ruling Islamic establishment, dancing and sex have been blocked since the crackdown was launched last month. [USA Today Online] Most blocked sites belong to Iranian resistance groups, including one run by Reza Pahlavi, son of the late Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, who was toppled during the 1979 Islamic Revolution, and Abolhassan Banisadr, Iran's first-elected president after 1979, who now opposes the clerical establishment. The Iranian official responsible says the government is using the same U.S. technology employed to filter offensive content from library patrons, but that he's just "following orders from the Supreme Cultural Revolution Council," an unelected body controlled by Iranian hard-liners. Yeah, and so was the Supreme Court!!

 Posted by glenn