Microsoft this week decided to turn off its Windows Live Messenger service for five countries: Cuba, Syria, Iran, Sudan, and North Korea. All five of these countries have a few things in common, but the one that apparently concerns Microsoft is that the US has put embargoes on each of them. Users in these countries get the following error: “810003c1: We were unable to sign you in to the .NET Messenger Service.” The user is not informed as to the actual reason for the block. Currently, it’s not clear how broad the block is or how long it will last.  Continue reading the article…

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Iran’s government has blocked access to social networking site Facebook ahead of June’s presidential elections, according to Iran’s ILNA news agency.

ILNA suggested the move was aimed at stopping supporters of reformist candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi from using the site for his campaign.

Facebook, which claims to have 175m users worldwide, expressed its disappointment over the reported ban.

So far there has been no comment from the authorities in Tehran. Continue reading the article…