So... apparently MetalStorm.net has been blocked by Iranian authorities. As of Sunday, MS has been "filtered" and is no longer accessible in Iran. Yup, Metal Storm is officially too metal for Iran. Several of our Iranian users have reported though that, next to bypass software, the site is still available through https://www.metalstorm.net.

The Islamic Republic of Iran has been filtering social network sites, like MySpace, Facebook, Last.fm, Twitter, Urkat for years now. But since last month authorities have started filtering blogs and websites related to Metal music. The infamous Metal Archives were the first to go down. But also most of the Persian language metal forums and blogs got filtered. Even the official Metallica website had to bite the dust.


Click the thumbnail to see a screenshot of how MS currently looks like in Iran. The text reads as follows: "In the name of Allah the Merciful, the Beneficent. According to internet violence rules, access to this website is denied."





When The Guardian reported about the intensified censorship following the commotion after the 2009 elections, the newspaper wrote that "internet censorship is both routine and highly developed in the Islamic Republic." Iran uses what the OpenNet Initiative calls "one of the most extensive technical filtering systems in the world", as all internet providers are required to go through state-controlled gateways.

According to Wikipedia - who have a surprisingly thorough article about internet censorship in Iran - every ISP must be approved by both the Telecommunication Company of Iran (TCI) and the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance, and must implement content-control software for websites and e-mail. ISP's face heavy penalties if they do not comply with the government filter lists.

In 2008, Iran has blocked access to more than five million Internet sites, whose content is mostly perceived as immoral and anti-social. In recent years, Internet service providers have been told to block access to political, human rights and women's sites and weblogs expressing dissent or deemed to be pornographic and anti-Islamic. The ban has also targeted such popular social networking sites as Facebook and YouTube, as well as news sites.


So yeah... Hail Satam, y'all!


[Also thanks to [user_id]1304[/user_id] for the information]

Source:

metalstorm.net