Iran claims Google is spy tool

PanARMENIAN.Net - Iran's police chief Esmail Ahmadi Moghaddam said that Google is not a search engine, but a spying tool.

According to Moghaddam, people's information security should be protected against enemies and launching a national internet can serve to this protection.

"We are not cutting our cyber relations with abroad and international internet service by launching own national internet," he said.

Iran's Information Minister said the country's own internet network will solve problems with costs, security and bandwidth.

“When the network becomes operational in a few weeks, internet access will no longer need an international bandwidth for domestic connections and bandwidth expenses will drop up to 30 percent,” Reza Taghipour said. “With domestic communications routed through the "national information network" the international bandwidth will be freed for international communications.”

“The network's purpose is to provide Iranian citizens with the safe environment to use the internet and to protect Iran from cyber-attacks. Protecting privacy and preventing cyber-attacks are concerns all the countries in the world,” the Information Minister said.

It would give government institutions and large companies access to the internet while limiting ordinary Iranians' use to the "halal" network (halal means in accordance with Islamic law), Trend News reports.

Iran announced earlier that it was working on a "halal" internet network to protect Iranians from the harmful content on the World Wide Web. President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's government allocated $1 billion to develop the project.

In recent days Iranians have been increasingly frustrated by slow internet service and no access to many sites including Facebook and Twitter.