Iran now employs the highest level of Internet filtering and surveillance in the world. Citizens are prohibited to access websites ranging from academic and social-networking sites to erotic poetry and computer technology - and especially websites that relate to anti-filtering programs. Politically dissenting sites are subject to regular blocks, while sites devoted to human rights and ethnic minorities are filtered for fear of undermining the existing religious ideology of the government. http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2008/08/24/tehrans_web_of_silence/