What is the role of a Western internet multinational like Google in a country such as Iran?
I’m currently researching this and related issues for my forthcoming book on the net in repressive regimes but Canadian blogger Nart Villeneuve has examined the apparent reality of US sanctions against the Islamic Republic starting to bite Iranian web users:
In the end it is Iranian citizens who are left out, unable to use popular tools and services increase our ability to communicate, create and express ourselves online, not because the Iranian government is censoring them but because of the U.S. embargo.