Iran appears to have closed down Google's Gmail service within the country.

"Google confirmed Gmail access problems in Iran but did not comment on the role of Iranian authorities or the possible cause of the outage," writes InformationWeek's Thomas Claburn.

"Iran has a long history of blocking Internet communication services that are perceived to threaten the Islamic regime," Claburn writes. "The apparent closure of Gmail coincides with efforts by authorities to deter any antigovernment protest planned to coincide with the 31st anniversary of the Islamic Revolution on February 11."

Click here to read the InformationWeek article.