Iran

In the aftermath of protests following the contested outcome of the 2009 Iranian presidential contest, the authorities blocked hundreds of thousands of web sites. That was made easier by the fact that Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps run the company which controls censorship in the country. However, Iranian bloggers have taken to the Internet to express themselves in large numbers - OpenNet Initiative estimates the number of active blogs at around 60,000. For good reason, Iran's regime views the free flow of information as a potential threat to its existence. If there's another explosion of popular protest, the blogosphere may yet play a crucial role in organizing resistance to the authorities.

Connections to the Internet are slow while broadband is off limits for cyber cafes and homes. Iran's Cyber Crime Act of 2009 mandates prison terms of up to two years and a fine for anyone found guilty of "disseminating false information likely to agitate public opinion."

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