There’s some serious plight going on in Iran right now as they experience another major internet disruption, and a more serious one for that matter. Email and social networking sites were already blocked ahead last week as a form of state censorship preceding the upcoming parliamentary elections so as to not reprise the violence that happened in 2009. But Iran blocking the internet only suggests that they are not in for some serious election backlash because they know Facebook and Twitter’s #iranElection will unleash some serious verbal carnage.

Even the most common form of secure connection are jammed including all https:// sites, which are encrypted international websites outside Iran that depends on Secure Socket Layer protocol. Iranians were using virtual private network (VPN) software to circumvent the crazy government filter last week to access foreign news sites and social networks but it seems an old trick doesn’t work on their government twice.

“Email, proxies and all the secure channels that start with ‘https’ are not available,” said a Tehran-based technology expert who declined to be identified.”The situation regarding accessing these websites is even worse than last week because the VPNs are not working.”

The election this year will be held on March 2, marking the first election following 2009. It’s pretty alarming how the government censors so much that surveillance activities are being extended to ordinary citizens. Iran is vigilant about how unsettling internet connectivity can be as opposition supporters last 2009 used social networking to organize protests after the re-election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad who was said to have committed fraud in votes. It took them 8 month to extinguish the fires of subversion.