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The Senate has authorized up to $50 million for the development of Web-based tools to help Iranians evade their government's attempts to censor the Internet.

The Victim of Iranian Censorship Act, or VOICE Act, was added to the Senates Defense authorization bill Thursday evening as a response to mass protests following Iran's disputed June 12 presidential elections and concerns that Western companies have sold Iran technology used to monitor dissidents.

Internet-based tools such as Facebook and Twitter have become key means for Iranians to communicate with each other and the outside world about protests over what many believe to be a fraudulent victory by incumbent President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

The U.S. legislation would require President Obama to issue a report on "non-Iranian companies, including corporations with U.S. subsidiaries, that have aided the Iranian governments Internet censorship efforts."

Such identification would make it easier to pressure firms to cease such business with Iran.

Muslim clerics debating the exploding popularity of Facebook in Indonesia said Friday that followers could use the networking site to connect with friends or for work — but not to gossip or flirt.

The Guardian newspaper said Facebook already had 900,000 users in Egypt;
250,000 in Saudi Arabia; 300,000 in Lebanon and 700,000 in Israel. The site is
expected to grow in popularity now that it is also available in Arabic, a
language spoken by 250 million people, and Hebrew, the language of 7
million.