As Blogs Are Censored, It’s Kittens to the Rescue

TO censor the Internet painlessly, undetectably, is the dream that keeps repressive governments up late at their mainframe computers. After all, no users are so censored online as those who never see it.

The Iranian government is carrying out an Internet crackdown in hopes of subduing the protest movement that has surged since the disputed results of the presidential election on June 12. At the same time, the Iranian government has been sending out the police to restrain protesters and foreign journalists.

Because the government’s censorship efforts are so evident — transparent, even — there is a battle raging online to keep Iran connected to the world digitally, and thus connected to the world.

“Cute cats are collateral damage when governments block sites,”

made aware that their government fears online speech so much that they’re willing to censor the millions of banal videos” and thereby “block a few political ones.”