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A joint venture of Siemens AG and Nokia Corp., the two large European technology firms, is denying reports that Iran uses its Web-monitoring technology to censor and spy on its citizens' online activities.

Nokia Siemens Networks said on Monday that it has sold telecommunications systems to the Iranian government, but that any built-in monitoring technology was for voice communications and not the Internet. "The lawful intercept capability is purely for local voice calls," spokesman Ben Roome told CBSNews.com. "We don't know who may have provided other Internet technologies to Iran."

The company's denial comes as protests over Iran's disputed election enter their second week, amplified by Twitter-ing from the Iranian diaspora, and cell phone videos showing ongoing street conflicts and the apparent death of young Iranian woman called Neda.

Images and video clips trickling in from the streets of Tehran -- even ones whose authenticity may never be established -- have electrified the West and demonstrated the limits of power that the government is able to wield. Because foreign correspondents are being pressured by authorities and forced to leave, according to journalist advocacy groups, the country's relatively tiny Internet pipe to the outside world is offering a unique glimpse of the situation on the streets.

Iran's Internet restrictions are no secret, of course. As CBSNews.com reported last week, Web sites including Facebook, YouTube.com, and the BBC have been deemed off-limits by government censors, and there have been recurring reports that Twitter.com and Yahoo Messenger have been blocked as well. Except for some hiccups, though, Iran's Internet authorities have chosen not to pull the plug on the nation's connections to the outside world.

The source of the surveillance technology used by Iran's Internet service providers remains an unresolved political question that could prove an embarrassment for any western company linked to Tehran's censorial regime. Few technology executives have forgotten the spectacle of Washington politicians calling Yahoo CEO Jerry Yang to a hearing and denouncing him as "spineless" for doing business in China, or Cisco being dubbed as "collaborating with the Chinese government" for supplying Internet switches and routers.

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