New video-sharing website in Iran

Iran has launched a new video-sharing website to promote Iranian culture. Mehr.ir is the country's answer to YouTube and allows users to join and upload videos for a Persian-speaking audience. Iran has censored YouTube for being inappropriate, since 2009 and the new website is the latest step in its goal to establish a national intranet, separate from the worldwide Internet. The Islamic Republic has blocked social media websites Facebook and Twitter, although Mehr.ir has its own Facebook page which provides links to its content, including Iranian music clips. Back in August, Iran’s head of the Ministry of Information and Communication Technology, Reza Taqipour said that the Internet was "untrustworthy” and in the "hands of one or two specific countries." Iran's plans to develop its own intranet are similar to North Korea’s development of 'Kwangmyong,' which was officially launched in 2002 and contains its own newsgroups, an email program and a search engine.