Iran denies has plan to cut Internet access

Iran has denied online reports that it plans to cut access to the Internet in August and replace it with a national intranet, according to a statement by the ministry of communication and information technology.

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 website 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." Iran, however, does have plans to establish a "national information network" billed as a totally closed system that would function like a sort of intranet for the Islamic republic. Taghipour said in early April that the plan would be fully implemented by March 2013.