Journalism professor and director of the USC Center on Public Diplomacy Philip Seib recently told KCRW-FM’s “Politics of Culture” that Iran could completely shut off the country's Internet access to quiet dissidents, but that there would be too many associated problems.
"My guess on that is that they don’t have an easy contingency plan to shut it down for everyone but themselves," Seib said. "So it would actually make it difficult for them to make use of the Internet in any way and that might be a price they don’t want to pay. And it could also be disruptive to the rest of the country. Depending on where the pockets of revolution are growing, maybe they wouldn’t want to shut it off for the whole country but only certain areas."
He also commented on the impact of social media reports about Iran’s election-related unrest.
“Consider the effect of what’s going on there and how it is being depicted on countries in the region,” he said. “Iran wants to be a major player or the major player in the region, and its legitimacy now has been seriously undermined. The political clout of its government is going to take some time to return.”
