In another blow for freedom, Iran is launching its own email service and suspending GMail. I guess this will make it easier to monitor the population. After the riots last Spring it seems like Twitter will be banned before too long. As far as Google is concerned it’s not clear why Iran doesn’t like the company. Google donates almost exclusively to the Democratic Party. Shouldn’t the Islamic Republic love that?

Iran’s telecommunications agency announced what it described as a permanent suspension of Google Inc.’s email services, saying a national email service for Iranian citizens would soon be rolled out.

It wasn’t clear late Wednesday what effect the order had on Gmail services in Iran, or even if Iran had implemented its new policy. Iranian officials have claimed technological advances in the past that they haven’t been able to execute