Nokia-Siemens accused in censorship row

Published on 24 June 2009 at 11:13

Now that Iran has activated its digital arsenal to prevent the free circulation of news, Nokia Siemens Networks (NSN) finds itself at the centre of a controversy, reports the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. This joint venture between the Finnish cell phone giant and German electronics colossus is accused of having furnished Tehran with the technology to analyse and censor information on the Internet. The software in question only enables the user to “record domestic telephone calls”, pleads the company in its defence, adding that Iran is not under any embargo. All the same, says the FAZ, “Nokia-Siemens has set up an – albeit rather inconspicuous – forum on its website in which the subject is being hotly debated. One blogger says the blood of Neda (Iranian woman whose death was filmed and posted on the Web) is on Nokia’s hands, others are calling for a boycott against the company.

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