The country of Iran has been saying it would cut off access to the outside Internet for its citizens for some time. Now it appears that Iran has a new timetable for their "national Internet" to go live. International Business Times reports that according to a statement from the Iranian minister for Information and Communications Technology, their internal Internet service would officially go live in August.
Previously the country indicated that their "national Internet" would go live in February, and then pushed that launch date back to June. Now the country is saying that the first phase will actually begin in May when online services from Google, Hotmail and Yahoo will be blocked. People in Iran who want access to, say, web email services and searches will have to use (and we are not kidding) Iran Mail and Iran Search Engine starting in May.
In August, Iran is set to launch the second and final phase of its "national Internet" project when the country blocks access to all foreign web sites inside Iran. Iranian officials have said such sites promote "crime, disunity, unhealthy moral content, and atheism." However, its more likely that the country's government simply want to keep Western web sites from being seen by its citizens who might later start a revolution against Iran's current leadership.
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