Iran to launch Islamic version of Google Earth
Iranian news robot Kodoom.com: Mohammad Hassan Nami, Iran's Minister of Communications and Information Technology, has shared Iran's plans to launch within four months, an Islamic version of Google Earth map services, called BASIR. Nami claims Google Earth is controlled by the United States for intelligence, security, and commercial purposes, whereas Iran's non-commercial BASIR will counter the “cultural aggression” of Google Earth/Maps against Islamic countries because it is designed to "serve spiritual needs of world populations to be guided towards truth and divine values."
The plan for BASIR launch was initially announced in 2011 by Nami, then Brigadier-General and head of Iran's armed forces’ geographical affairs organization.
Apart from the government, Iranian citizens have also been critical of Google Map services due to Google's ambiguous policy on using the established historic name "Persian Gulf" on their maps (related news in Persian). Some Iranians accuse Google of avoiding the term "Persian " Gulf for commercial reasons and to profiteerg from Arab states who insist on removing the "Persian" from the maps of Persian Gulf.
