denied

It is not unusual for Middle Eastern countries to block certain websites that authorities feel pose a political or moral danger. Now, Iran has gone one step further and cut off an entire swathe of the internet.

When one of Iran’s 40 million internet users tries to access any website that uses the common https protocol – and that includes Facebook, Gmail and YouTube – the site does not load, and instead a message appears on the screen.

It reads: “According to computer crime regulations, access to this website is denied.”