Google confirms its encrypted services have been blocked in Iran since February 10th

Bloomberg has received direct confirmation from Google that — as our own findings indicated — Iran’s government has been actively blocking access to each of its encrypted web services (including Gmail, YouTube, and Google Videos) since February 10th. Sadly, the regime’s censorship appears to extend well beyond Mountain View’s offerings, with the country’s 30 million web-connected citizens reportedly unable to visit any secured (https) domains. Strangely, Iran’s Information Technology Organization and Telecommunication Infrastructure Co. have both claimed to be “unaware” of such a situation, with the ITO’s head representative Saeed Mahdioun saying such a measure would be outside his group’s jurisdiction. We don’t expect much in the way of details from these state-run agencies, but that they claim not to be cognizant of any issue doesn’t give us high hopes of the restrictions being lifted in the short term.