The Iran Ban

Even though Google has seemingly pervaded every online sector internationally, Iran is making an exception.

According to the Wall Street Journal, Iran has officially banned Gmail in their country. Instead, Iranians are only allowed to utilize a state-sponsored national e-mail service in its place.

With the 31st anniversary of the Islamic Republic quickly approaching, the government hopes that the ban will prevent mass protests and riots from exploding in the public sphere. Those who are both for and against the regime no doubt have their opinions, and censorship is the first action to prevent controversial speech. Since history repeats itself, the Iranian government is taking notes from last year's election. In anticipation of mass protests, Iran banned FriendFeed, a social network available to its citizens, as well as Facebook and other communication media outlets.

Luckily, the citizens resorted to Twitter to disseminate information quickly and accurately. But the next question is: is Twitter next? The government has taken the extra step to also monitor text messaging and ban Badoo, another popular social network.

It's interesting that Gmail was the first to go. With the success of Twitter in Iran and its growing popularity, I would have guaranteed that Iran would be threatened by the 140 character statements. But only time will tell.