Several days ago, news came out that Microsoft and Yahoo! have booted Iran from their email country lists (Skype has disallowed service in Iran as well), most likely as a result of recent U.S. pressure on the nation and on companies doing business with it. Surprisingly, Google Gmail did not follow suit.

This raises the interesting question of whether attempting to bar a nation’s people from interacting with others throughout the globe (via email) falls under the veil of economic sanctions. Indeed, it can be argued that actions like this only hamper our ability to change America’s public image, and allow the Iranian government to politically capitalize on it. It also is a bit odd considering that some of these very companies (most notably Yahoo!) have come under fire recently for their cooperation with the Chinese government in reporting users’ online activities, yet are given a free reign to conduct business there by the U.S. government.

Now Ahmadinejad and the rest of the Iranian regime can aptly accuse us of censorship, and keep Iranians’ focused on something other than their own horrible record of media and internet freedom. It seems they may be the real beneficiaries of this policy.

-Kevin