TEHRAN, Iran – Iran has blocked access to the popular video-sharing Web site YouTube.com, and a media rights group warned Tuesday that Internet censorship in the Islamic state is on the rise.
Internet users who tried to call up the YouTube site Tuesday were met with the message, “On the basis of the Islamic Republic of Iran laws, access to this Web site is not authorized.” The message also appears on numerous opposition and pornographic Web sites the government blocks.
It was not known how long the site had been on Iran’s blacklist. The Paris-based media rights group Reporters Without Borders said YouTube had been blocked for the past five days.
Iran’s Shiite cleric-run government regularly blocks opposition Web sites, including blogs, and the number of sites that bring up the “unauthorized” message has been increasing over the past year. Western news sites, however, are generally available.
Videos from the Mujahedeen-e-Khalq and other Iranian opposition groups have been posted on YouTube.com, along with others by individual Iranians critical of the regime. The site also has Iranian pop music videos, which are frowned upon by the religious leadership.
In its statement Tuesday, Reporters Without Borders warned that “censorship is now the rule rather than the exception” in Iran.
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