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Iran Can't Stop The Flow Of News

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Jun 22, 2009 10:13 pm US/Mountain

Iran Can't Stop The Flow Of News

Good Question: How is the information getting out?

Written by Alan Gionet

Reporting
Alan Gionet
DENVER (CBS4) ― Aryan Diba reads and watches on his iPhone.

"They're trying to cover this up, but I don't think they're going to be able to that easily because this information is getting out faster than they can take it down."

Diba's cousin in Iran has a Facebook page. Friends send links to video and information.

"I mean I'm sitting here using my thumb looking at stuff from halfway across the world."

While the traditional media has been locked out of many protests, kept under wraps in hotel rooms by Iranian security, stopping the flow of information is like trying to dam the Persian Gulf. The flow of information is now too broad and too deep to bottle up; at least for Iran.

"It gets harder," said University of Denver assistant professor of political science Seth Masket. "It used to be there was just one state-run newspaper and that was fairly easy for them to control. But now you have cell phone companies, you have satellites generally not run by their own country. It's much easier to get information out, it's much harder for one country to organize the jamming of it."

Iran has tried to jam some satellites being used to share information, but more open up. The Voice of America has opened new satellite channels or paths for use to share information. Security services can try going after specific computers by seeking Internet protocol addresses known as IP addresses that are being used to share information, but there are ways for computer users to use proxy addresses. It's like shutting down a highway. Simply take another road.

Iranian security could get very busy shutting down roads, but it can't shut down the Internet entirely -- not without risking grinding the entire country to a halt. Even though only about a quarter of Iran's 70 million people have Internet access on a good day, the country, like nearly all others around the world, now needs the Internet for banking, security and international trade. If it wants to unleash anarchy that could bring down the current government, that would be a good way to start.

"It's just hard to keep track of that where a new Internet server is being set up, or to figure out who has a Twitter account and who is sending out what information," said Masket.

Not that Iranian security won't try. The perception that people can get caught may serve the purpose. Fewer are braving the streets with word of a crackdown, but there are some. That is what may keep the information that Iran's current government doesn't want you to hear flowing.

(© MMIX CBS Television Stations, Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)

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