By David Murphy
Iranians face a decent amount of governmental censorship when they attempt to log into the Internet from their country. However, for even the most not-so-savvy of tech folk, receiving unfettered access to the Web at large is as easy as firing up a VPN application and tunneling your way past governmental blocks.
Or, at least, it was. “Within the last few days illegal VPN ports in the country have been blocked,” said Iranian official Ramezanali Sobhani-Fard in an interview with Reuters. “Only legal and registered VPNs can from now on be used.”
So, those looking to tap into Facebook, YouTube, various news sites and, yes, even Google’s search engine itself (among other banned websites) will have to find different methods for doing so – which do exist, according to an Iranian interviewed by Reuters who said he was using an unnamed software tool to bypass Iran’s blocks.
Of course, it would be incorrect to say that Iran’s banning VPNs in general. In actuality, the government is already supplying access to “official” and “legal” VPN services that Iranian businesses can tap into.
“We have started distributing official VPN services for Iranian users. Those need this service to open safe connections can apply in the program and we will review their cases one by one. If their request was approved, then we will introduce legal providers and licensed clients can buy their needed services,”