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Iran to complete smart online filtering in six months

ICT Materials 9 November 2014 14:48 (UTC +04:00)

Baku, Azerbaijan, Nov.9

By Umid Niayesh - Trend:

Iran will implement the smart online filtering in next six months, Mahmoud Vaezi, the Islamic Republic's communications and information technology minister said.

The project includes three phases and is planed to be completed in next six months, Vaezi said, Iran's official IRNA news agency reported Nov. 9.

Vaezi also defended the smart filtering project, saying Iranians demand filtering pornographic and immoral web sites.

Earlier in September Iran's Supreme Council of Cyberspace (SCC) unveiled the first "smart filtering software" which is capable of accurate and rapid detecting of "offensive" content online.

The new software is a step up from the existing filtering system in Iran that blocks access to the whole website.

The new software only filters "inappropriate content (including text, image and video)" of the Internet pages and allows access to other contents.

The software has successfully passed the tests and was commissioned in several organizations and institutions in Iran.

Launching the project may increase hopes about lifting ban on popular social networks such as Twitter and Facebook.

Earlier in September 2013 Iranian media outlets quoted member of Iran's Committee on Internet filtering Mohammad Reza Aghamiri as saying Facebook may be unblocked after developing a smart filtering system for separating illegal and useful content on the social network.

It should be noted that users in Iran are still able to access banned web sites including Facebook via proxies. A proxy allows bypassing 'gates' meant to block certain sites. A survey by Iranian Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports indicates that 69.3 percent of the country's young generation use proxy servers to by-pass the filters and access banned Internet websites.

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