Iran: May 13, 2001

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cafes. 

Police closed some 400 internet cafes in the capital. The cafes had opened in the last few years as a result of moderate president Khatami's election and call for economic growth. The internet cafes were mainly a means to make cheap phone calls and the shut down was seen as a joint effort between religious conservatives (to cut off bad ideas and sacrilegious information from abroad) and the state telephone company (which wants to eliminate the internet cafe's ability to make cheap long distance calls.) This action hits at two things that irritate the population; religious censorship and