The internet in Iraq

It will probably come as no surprise that Iraq trails behind most of the rest of the Arab world when it comes to internet usage. They were after all at war for much of the period when the internet was becoming widely used in that part of the war. As a result they have a long way to go in order to catch up.

The use of the internet in Iraq has been growing very rapidly in recent years as people are finally gaining access to it. Under Saddam Hussein there were very few people who had access to the internet. Nobody really knows how many since the government strictly controlled this and didn't tell anybody. Following the removal of Saddam from power it still took quite a while for the internet to become available as a result of the continuing war. Even today most internet access is through wireless as the cables were destroyed during the war. As as result only about ten percent of the population currently have access to the internet.

While the number of people in Iraq who can get online remains fairly small this is something that the country is working on. Both the Iraqi government and the United States are working hard to build the required infrastructure. This is probably going to take some time however as there is still some fighting going on in the country. As a result the spread of the internet will probably be fairly slow, especially to the rural areas.

Another big issue that is facing Iraq as the internet becomes more widespread is the issue of censorship. Under Saddam Hussein this was taken to the extreme with few people even being allowed access to the internet. The United States have always said the goal was to install an elected government and that this would require that free speech be protected. As a resulted a constitution was created that protects the right to free speech, which should also preclude censoring the internet. However Iraq is also a Muslim country and almost all Muslim countries censor the internet because some of the content is not considered to be acceptable. As a result the Iraqi government have started to make attempts to censor the internet.

The future of the internet in Iraq is very much an open question. Certainly more people are going to gain access to it but it does remain to be seen what they will be able to do when they get their. As long as the United States remains heavily involved in Iraq the governments ability to censor the internet will likely be fairly limited. But as the US starts to pull out and leave Iraq to govern itself this may change. Even the democratically elected government are talking about the need to censor the internet so it is probable that it will happen at some point.