Iran denies reports that internet will be cut, replaced by "clean, national intranet"

PHOTO: Technicians monitor data flow in the control room of an internet service provider in Tehran February 15, 2011. REUTERS/Caren Firouz

There's an AFP item today on Iran's denial of online reports that it plans to shut off access to the Internet this August, replacing that access with a "national intranet." Snip:

The reports derived from a supposed interview with Communications Minister Reza Taghipour published on April 1 that was in fact a hoax, the ministry said in the statement on its own site www.ict.gov.ir -- which itself was not accessible outside of Iran. “The report is in no way confirmed by the ministry” and is “completely baseless,” the ministry statement said.
The hoax report quoted Taghipour saying that Iran would from August launch a “clean internet” that would block popular services like Google and Hotmail and replace them with government-sponsored search engines and e-mail services. The ministry statement slammed the false report as serving “the propaganda wing of the West and providing its hostile media with a pretext emanating from a baseless claim.”

(via Jillian York)

Boing Boing editor/partner and tech culture journalist Xeni Jardin hosts and produces Boing Boing's in-flight TV channel on Virgin America airlines (#10 on the dial), and writes about living with breast cancer. Diagnosed in 2011. @xeni on Twitter. email: xeni@boingboing.net.

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http://evilbobdayjob.blogspot.com/ Deidzoeb

Iran has no plan to cut or replace the internet, and also has no homosexuals.
Jellodyne

Sometimes Comcast cuts my internet and replaces it with my internal home network. Sadly, not clean.
Guest

It’s not a big truck.
V10_Rob

“No, we have no plans to cut off the internet and replace it with our own monitored and filtered system. But hey, a good idea is a good idea…”
http://www.mrericsir.com MrEricSir

If it’s a hoax, why are they responding to it? It’s not like the White House issues press releases denying The Onion’s reports about Joe Biden.
- Pedantic Douchebag
  
  To be fair, many of them eventually come true, as is the case with about 60% of all Onion articles.
- Guest
  
  The Onion has had to hire fact checkers for Joe Biden stories, to make sure they’re joking
retepslluerb

Niemand hat die Absicht, eine Mauer zu errichten.
mark conahan

We should do that too starting with that filthy Facebook.
niktemadur

“The report is in no way confirmed by the ministry” and is “completely baseless,” the ministry statement said.

So it’s imminent, then.