Helping Iranians Skirt Web Crackdown

(CBS)  If Iran's leaders had their way, few people would have heard of Neda - the young woman killed in the protests there, who has become a worldwide icon - or seen last week's massive protests at all.

They've tried everything to censor coverage, from banning reporters to shutting down Web sites.

But the news is still getting out, thanks, in part, to computer wizards half a world away, reports CBS News correspondent John Blackstone.

Miami, Okla. may be a small town far from anywhere, but for protesters in Iran marching again today in spite the increasingly tough government crackdown, the Oklahoma town has been a gateway to the rest of the world - by way of Anthony Papillion's computer.

"I always like to think I'm a techie with an activist heart," said Papillion, an Internet activist.

Papillon turned his computer into what's called a "proxy server."

"Basically a proxy server is a go-between between one computer and another," he said.

It's how one American and his computer can help Iranians get around government censors.

"So it's a crazy situation," Papillon said, "unimaginable here in the United States."

The censors in Iran have blocked access to popular web sites like Twitter, YouTube and Facebook. But by rerouting internet traffic to sites unknown to the censors, proxy servers let Iranians hide their real on line destination.

"As long as you can connect to the Internet, you can have a voice and you can make a huge difference on a global scale," Papillon said.

Iranians are using services like Twitter to talk to the world - and to each other. On Twitter today there are calls to gather: "Freedom loving Iranians needed in Haft-e-Tir Square," said one message. Another: "Go help your freedom fighters brave souls of Iran."

The video from Iran is reminiscent of demonstrations in China's Tiananmen Square 20 years ago. One of those demonstrators was Shiyu Zhou. Now he's a computer scientist in the U.S. working to keep the Internet open for Iranians.

"We do want to help people in closed societies and we understand their pain so we want to help them," Zhou said.

Zhou is among a group of Chinese exiles, computer engineers who created "Freegate" - software designed to help people in China dodge Internet censorship. But now Freegate is being used by some 400,000 people a day in Iran to beat government censors.

"The Iranian traffic to our platform exceeded the Chinese traffic," Zhou said.

Anthony Papillion's proxy server now appears to have been blocked by Iran's government, but he knows others are taking his place.

"I think the world is showing them that through technology everyone's equal," Papillon said.

As the Iranian government discovers and blocks proxy servers, communicating from the locked-down country has become an online game of cat-and-mouse - in which the mouse has become a powerful weapon.

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[tiredofthebs]

CBS .... you've topped yourself again. Glorifying subversives ..... please. If Iranians helped US citizens spread propoganda, we'd be up in arms. We as US citizens need to realize that our opinion means NOTHING in the rest of the world. The Iranian gov't. has the RIGHT and the DUTY to maintain order whether we like their tactics or not.

[YrSoWrong]

Correct that the Iranian election is a shell game. Wrong to support any one fascist except that it benefits the US if they struggle for power. The endless anti-Americanism on the CBSNEWS site is the special gift of stupid, bullying jackasses. They deserve to lose, and they are used-to it.

[lloydbest1]

For those who may not know, The "Islamic Revolution" is safe. Regardless of who ends up as president, the religious elite will still have nearly absolute control of the country. Iranian foreign policy will change little if at all.
Mousavi appears to be the top vote getter so this squabble is the hostile response to Khamenei's support of Ahmadinejad stealing the election. The vote count was probably pretty close and Mahmoud may have actually won it anyway. But to ask the world to believe he managed to get nearly 65% of the vote and took 90% in Mousavi's home province is jumping the shark to an unprecedented degree. The Iranian people simply aren't buying that line of BS. THAT is what the riots in Tehran and, now, in other large cities are all about.
The Iranian people do not want to return their country to a pro-Western "Democracy". They do not want a secularized Iran; they're perfectly happy with the mosque-state marriage that exists now. They are a whole lot less concerned with the kind of individual freedoms we have here as they are about finding meaningful work in a land with a 30 to 40 percent unemployment rate. They are as tired of Ahmadinejad stoking up Iran's war machine as we were of His Bushness stoking up ours. We did something about it; the Iranian people are attempting the same thing.
Note here they do not even want the results overturned they simply want an accurate and honest recount. And are willing to stand in the face of an opressive crackdown to get it.
Count on this: Iran will not become America's ally. Neither Mousavi, Mohsen Rezai nor Mehdi Karroub have any love for Washington. In fact, Mir Hossein was one of the student leaders of the US embassy takeover in 1979 and defends it yet. All three of the major players on the "losing" side are pretty hard line. But all appearances are Mousavi won the election - if not with better than 50% of the vote than with enough of it to force a runoff. That, alone, is enough for him to have my long distance support.
There is no reason for the "O" man to butt in any more than he has. Let's let those in Iran have first crack at righting this wrong. The bag is wide open and the cats are scattered throughout, The protesters have sufficient critical mass now to have a good shot in securing justice on their own. It's an internal matter that should be left that way...

[YrSoWrong]

Some impotent losers who live to serve the Ayatollah and insult their obvious superiors had better get off the prison washroom floor and get back to being the dimwitted slaves that they are. Wormiest of worms, slither away.

[hungry1968-15]

by gravyboat3000 June 22, 2009 6:07 PM PDT
visavermin...What do you want the President to do?

Be specific, all your generalizations are just stupid,"Obama didn't do anything"?






I've been asking this question ALL DAY LONG, and not ONE of these brainless lemmings can answer the question.

All they know is that their handlers told them to "criticize Obama for not doing anything", so that is all they are doing. They don't know who, what, why, where, how, or when, but they do know that they MUST criticize Obama.

[thusspokezara]

Hey CBS where is your coverage of the North Korean ship? Did Hillary tell you to take it off the front page?

[patriot1947-2009]

AVENGE NEDA!!!!

[mljohns00]

Let me get this straight: If I use the Internet to help Iraqis fight foreign invaders, I'm a terrorist? But if I use the Internet to help Iranians fight their own government, I'm a hero?

[YrSoWrong]

Think of it this way: if the Ayatollah considers your devotion to his imbecile regime commendable, then Washington, Adams, Jefferson, Madison and the boys all consider you insane.

[gravyboat3000]

visavermin...What do you want the President to do?

Be specific, all your generalizations are just stupid,"Obama didn't do anything"?

And GM employs Americans, everytime you post,"don't buy GM", you're asking for more Americans to become unemployed.