From the Wall Street Journal...

The Iranian regime has developed, with the assistance of European telecommunications companies, one of the world's most sophisticated mechanisms for controlling and censoring the Internet, allowing it to examine the content of individual online communications on a massive scale.

Interviews with technology experts in Iran and outside the country say Iranian efforts at monitoring Internet information go well beyond blocking access to Web sites or severing Internet connections.

...capability was provided, at least in part, by a joint venture of Siemens AG, the German conglomerate, and Nokia Corp., the Finnish cellphone company, in the second half of 2008, Ben Roome, a spokesman for the joint venture, confirmed.

In short, Western run corporations have assisted the Iranian regime in creating what's being called a "Censorship Monster" - a creature which allows the Iranian government to not only block access to content, but track individuals behavior on the internet.

No doubt the Iranian government has used this ability to spy on its citizens in the recent weeks. Internet access in Iran has slowed considerably which is a side effect of deep packet inspection - the process used by the Censorship Monster to collect data. There have been reports of Iranian citizen's residencies being raided by Iranian police. It isn't hard to imagine a correlation between those who have been raided and the data the government has collected on them.

For those of us in free societies who have a hard time comprehending this sort of oppression, let's imagine this "western style"... Pretend you are talking to your girlfriend on the phone. Now imagine your mom is using a hidden extension in her bedroom to eavesdrop on your call. Your mom discovers your intention to meet your girlfriend for some late night intimacy. Disapproving, she cuts your phone line and deploys your dad to pummel you, rendering you incapable of making your late night rendezvous. In this analogy your mom is Iran, your dad is the Iranian Police, the phone you mom was using to eavesdrop was provided by Nokia and Siemens and it must be 1995 because people are still using landlines. Oh, and I forgot - in this analogy you're 25 years old and living in an apartment down the street from your parents.

On a more serious note, I'm not sure what frightens me more - that something like the "Censorship Monster" can be created or that we wouldn't know about it if it was. Perhaps most frightening is the willingness of Nokia and Seimens to create this system in the first place. It has ceased to be surprising that corporation's profit interests trump their concern for the rights of the individual, but its no less unsettling each time we're reminded of this unattractive truth.

If it's not obvious already, you'll find we deplore censorship. Anybody can and should be called out for it. The free transfer of information is a check and balance against those in power and at the same time gives those without it a voice. Never has there been a more perfect conduit for the voice of the populace than the Internet - which makes its censorship that much more deplorable.