Censorship fears grow as websites are inaccessible

Tehran/London: Internet users in Tehran and some other cities in Iran were unable to access Google, Yahoo and other foreign websites on Friday, with some fearing government censorship ahead of the anniversary of a major opposition march.

Traffic monitoring tools outside Iran and reports from people inside the country confirmed that Google services, particularly Gmail, were inaccessible to many Iranians.

For internet users inside Iran, connecting to http websites, in particular Google and Yahoo, has been either extremely slow and only through virtual private networks (VPNs), which route traffic through secure tunnels to the outside world, or not possible at all since Thursday evening.

Some users have reported problems accessing any sites that use the secure https website, which encrypts traffic, including online banking services, as well as proxy servers, which can be used to redirect traffic in and out of the country.

Google, which is used by many as the gateway to the web, had not previously been blocked.

‘Opposition rally'

Tehran blocked Facebook in May 2009 in the run-up to its election. The social network has been largely inaccessible since and remained so on Friday.

"It must be related to the opposition rally on Tuesday," said one conservative analyst of this latest disruption.

The Co-ordination Council of the Green Path of Hope, a committee based outside of Iran, which is affiliated to the opposition green movement, has called on Iranians to march peacefully on February 14 and force the regime to release the opposition leaders.

— Financial Times