The ban lasted seven days.
Telecommunications official Mohammad-Reza Miri told the Mehr news agency that the ban on Gmail was an unintended consequence of strengthening the existing restrictions on YouTube. But although Google owns YouTube, the two are run separately and not linked digitally.
And last week, some officials claimed they had blocked Gmail as a result of a court order.
The secured HTTPS version of Google search was also made accessible after having been blocked at the same time. The unsecured HTTP was never blocked.
Members of the Majlis expressed frustration at being unable to access their email accounts, according to Deputy Hossain Garrousi, with some threatening to summon Telecommunications Minister Reza Taqipur if the ban were not reversed. Taqipur had announced the ban saying it was due to Google’s failure to “observe Iranian law.”
It appeared the government had simply caved in when faced by angry opposition from forces within the establishment that would normally favor a tough policy against the West. It looked as though West-bashing wasn’t working when so many establishment officials couldn’t send routine emails.
Officials have given multiple explanations for shutting down Gmail, some of which struck listeners as inane. In announcing the restoration of Gmail service Monday, Miri pleaded technical stupidity. “Unfortunately, we do not yet have enough technical know-how to differentiate between these two services,” he said. “We wanted to block YouTube and Gmail was also blocked, which was involuntary.”
A ban on YouTube access and social media sites was first imposed in mid-2009 as members of that summer’s protest movement were promoting their meetings and protests online.
Last week’s additional restrictions were announced as a response to the inflammatory anti-Islam film that sparked protests from Muslims around the world. Google was said to be targeted because it owns YouTube—but many Iranians saw the ban on Gmail as a plot to start a shift from the Internet to a closed Iran-only Intranet.
Iranian clerics have expressed a desire to create a closed network accessible only from within Iran while blocking access to sites outside of Iran, citing concerns of Western influence. The powerful Iranian Internet oversight agency includes President Ahmadi-nejad, the intelligence chief, and commander of the Pasdaran, according to the Associated Press.
Iranian officials insist they have no plans to block the Internet in its entirety. But many Iranians do not believe those assurances.