Internet censorship in Iran

Iran underwent a significant increase in internet usage in the early 2000s.[32] Many users saw the internet as an easy way to circumvent Iran's strict press laws.[33][34] As international internet usage grew, its censorship increased and many popular websites were blocked,[32][35] especially after 2005 under the administration of conservative president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.[36]

In 2005–2018,[8][37] Ayatollah Khamenei sent letters to the presidents of Iran, the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Iran, and the IRGC, ordering them to form a national intranet, called the National Information Network.[14][38][39][40] The National Information Network was unveiled during the 2019 Iranian protests.[6] The NIN works in a way similar to the Great Firewall of China, but with more strict monitoring.[8][41][15][40] After YouTube was blocked in Iran,[42] Aparat, an Iranian online video-sharing platform, was founded. In 2020, due to the activity of an Aparat user, the CEO of Aparat was sentenced to 10 years in prison because of an interview with children about sex and pornography by Gelofen TV.[43][44] The business of selling virtual private networks (VPNs), SOCKS, and proxy servers in Iran is worth millions (USD) due to their large demand.[45] The twelfth Minister of Information and Communications Technology in Iran announced that the lucrative business of selling VPNs and proxies has generated substantial profits for its manufacturers and retailers, and there are efforts to stop these businesses.

In 2006 and 2010, the activist group Reporters Without Borders labeled Iran one of the 13 countries designated "Enemies of the Internet."[46] Reporters Without the Borders sent a letter to the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay to share its deep concern, and ask for her intervention in the case of two netizens and free speech defenders, Vahid Asghari and Hossein Derakhshan.

Following the 2009 election protests, Iran ratified the Computer Crimes Law (CCL) in 2010.[47] The CCL established legal regulations for internet censorship. Notable provisions of the CCL include the following: Article 10, which effectively prohibits internet users and companies from using encryption or protecting data, in a manner that would "deny access of authorized individuals to data, computer and telecommunication systems"; Article 14, which criminalizes "producing, sending, publishing, distributing, saving or financially engaging in obscene content"; Article 21, which requires ISPs to maintain records of internet traffic data and the personal information of their Internet users; and Article 48, which requires Internet Service Providers to record data from telephone conversations over the internet.[48]

In April 2011, Ali Agha-Mohammadi, a senior official, announced the government had plans to launch a halal internet that would conform to Islamic values and provide government-approved services. This would effectively completely disconnect the Iranian people from the outside world.[49] Such a network, similar to one used by North Korea, would prevent unwanted information from outside of Iran from entering the closed system.[50]

In 2012, Iran's ministry of information and communication technology began testing a countrywide "national internet" network, as a substitute for services ran through the World Wide Web.[49] It also began working on software robots to analyze emails and chats, to find more "effective ways of controlling user's online activities." One Iranian IT expert defended the program as aimed not "primarily" at curbing the global internet, but at securing Iran's military, banking, and sensitive data from outside cyber-attacks such as Stuxnet.[49] In addition, by late January 2012, internet café owners were required to record the identities of their customers before providing services. According to the news website Tabnak, an Iranian policy statement states:

Internet cafes are required to write down the forename, surname, name of the father, national identification number, postcode, and telephone number of each customer. Besides the personal information, they must maintain other information of the customer such as the date and the time of using the internet and the IP address, and the addresses of the websites visited. They should keep these informations for each individual for at least six months.[49]

In preparation for the March 2012 elections and the launch of a national internet,[49] the Iranian government instituted strict rules for cybercafés. Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran's Supreme Leader, instructed the Iranian authorities to set up the Supreme Council of Cyberspace, a body to oversee the internet. It consists of the president of Iran, Minister of Intelligence, and IRGC chiefs. It defines policy and coordinates decisions regarding the internet. It is thought to be the strongest attempt at internet censorship by any country to date.[51] It requires all Iranians to register their websites with the Ministry of Art and Culture.[52]

Also in March 2012, Iran began implementing a national Intranet. This effort was partially in response to Western actions such as the Stuxnet cyberattack on Iranian's main uranium enrichment facility, which fueled suspicions against foreign technologies.[53] The government and Islamic Revolutionary Guard's response has been to mandate the use of Iranian email systems, block popular web-mail services, inhibit encryption use by disabling VPNs and HTTPS, and to ban externally developed security software.[8][54][55]

In May 2012 Iran criticized Google for dropping the name "Persian Gulf" from its maps, leaving the feature unlabeled. Six days after Khamenei's statement, Iran announced that Google and Gmail would be added to the list of banned sites, to be replaced by the national network. Iranian media reported that the new system would be ready by March 2013.[56] Gmail and Google was later unblocked. The Iranian alternative to Google was Parsijoo, which is disabled now. The network already hosted some government and academic sites.[57]

The isolation of the separate network was also touted as an improvement to network security, in the wake of the Stuxnet. A computer virus was also found in Iran's major Kharg Island oil export terminal in April. Communications and Technology Minister Reza Taqipour said, "Control over the internet should not be in the hands of one or two countries. Especially on major issues and during crises, one cannot trust this network at all."[56]

In September 2012 Ayatollah Ali Khamenei called on Western leaders to censor the trailer for Innocence of Muslims, which was posted to YouTube. Khamenei alluded to bans on Nazi-related or anti-gay sites in some countries, asking "How there is no room for freedom of expression in these cases, but insulting Islam and its sanctities is free?"[58]

Starting in mid-2014, the government of then-President Hassan Rouhani sought to ease internet restrictions in the country, with Ali Jannati, the culture minister, likening the restrictions to the ban on fax machines, video recorders, and videotapes after the 1979 revolution.[59]

In December 2016, Iranian Prosecutor Ahmad Ali Montazeri, who heads Iran's internet censorship Committee, banned and closed 14,000 websites and social networking accounts in Iran.[60] He underlined that President Rouhani and the Interior Minister Rahmani Fazli agreed with him and have addressed "serious warnings" on this issue.[60]

As of 2018, it is estimated that between 64% and 69% of Iranians are internet users.[61][62]

During the 2017–18 Iranian protests, the Iranian government blocked internet access from mobile networks and various websites, including Instagram and Telegram, in an effort to stymie protests. At some points, the government completely blocked internet access in Kurdish parts of the country.[63][64] A January 2018 report by four special rapporteurs of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights expressed concern about the blocking, stating, "Communication blackouts constitute a serious violation of fundamental rights".[64]

During the 2019 fuel protests in Iran, The Iranian authorities deliberately shut down the internet during nationwide protests in November 2019, hiding the true scale of unlawful killings by security forces. As protests intensified, the Iranian authorities implemented a near-total internet blackout by ordering different internet service providers (ISPs) to shut down. IODA observed steady drops in signals, which started when cellular operators were ordered to disconnect around 2pm local time on 16 November. By 7pm, Iran had descended into digital darkness.

Iran’s domestic internet remained online, allowing activities such as government services and banking to continue, which minimized financial losses in the country’s economy. It was only around five days later, at approximately 10am on 21 November, that internet access began to be restored. It did not completely return until 27 November.

"The authorities deliberately blocked internet access inside Iran, hiding the true extent of the horrendous human rights violations that they were carrying out across the country" said Iranian expert Diana Eltahawy.[65]

Despite universal condemnation, the government shutdown and slowed internet open-ended permanently since September.[66] US government issued license D-2 sanctions relief for American internet companies to help Iranians. Earlier this year, the cyberspace protection act was run.[67] Restrictions were put in place for LTE networks such as Irancell, Hamrahe-Aval And Rightel completely blocking access to all website excluding those hosted in Iran. [68] [69][70]

On the December 4, a news article was published in the media quoting Ahmad Vahidi, the Minister of Interior of the 13th government, citing a “complete filtering of cyberspace” and it was denied a few hours later. On December 18, Mohsen Taeb, the former head of the IRGC Intelligence Organization, said, “[t]here will come a day on the platforms where we will determine whose photo will be published and who will not.” In the last 3 months, the Ministry of Communications of the Ebrahim Raisi government has made contradictory statements on this matter.

This time, the international community has decided to fight back, with many countries severing economic and diplomatic relations with Iran after these censorships.

"The country’s cyber governance has been compromised by such an action  It is possible that the international court will issue a verdict that will hit Iran’s cyber governance the most. Also, financial fines are probable for the infrastructure communication company." Said Sharareh Abdolhoseinzadeh, a PhD in Political Sociology.[71]

In January, the Ministry of ICT opened the radar.game software and a DNS for games.[72][73][74][75] The Minister of ICT created 403.online, a DNS and VPN for Iranians bypassing the HTTP 403 code.[76][77]

TLD generic names ending with .online are blocked.[78]

On the 19th February, Iranians began blocking Cloudflare with a massive share of 70% Iranian traffic cut off from the Internet.[79][80][81][82] The median internet speed became worse as of May 2023 according to Speedtest, as the government began limited fiber optically connected internet rollout.[83][84][85][86][87][88] The Iranian cyber police began purging social media and websites,[89] while the Minister of Science Research, Technology and ICT discussed cutting the internet for university entry exam tests. [90]

According to the Parliament research group head, VPN sales were highly profitable, estimated to be whopping 50,000 billion Toman (about US$1.01 billion) annually which is then taxed by Iranian government. [91][92][93][94][95][96][97] It was noted by the newspaper Ham-Mihan that while prices stayed the same, data bandwidth was now more expensive.[98] A seventh five-year plan increased internet tariffs, making the national information network far cheaper.[99]

The Minister of Cultural Heritage and Tourism had claimed that the internet would be restored once the upheaval is gone.[100] However, according to the newspaper Resalat, as of June 2023, a branch of Islamic Republic military are pro-denial of free internet access and are actively working towards it, even obstructing others efforts to achieve it.[101][102] In June 2023, a member of parliament claimed that the Cyberspace protection bill is now in full effect, while according to another, it is abandoned and irrelevant.[103][104]

Minister of ICT denied reduced internet speed claimed Iran has three times its need.[105]June 27th Supreme Council of Cyberspace began a workgroup in association with Ministry of ICT for slow internet to report by one month.[106] Supreme leader asked judicial system power to begin a program , combat "those who are annoying in cyber and real life".[107]

In August a cyberspace services system bill commission member claimed the government has decided to lower internet access, make it unafforable, and reduce speed.[108]

Minister of communications offered selling class "professional" based internet access to startups and corporations with less restrictions.[109][110][111][112][113] IRNA defended the internet closed access.[114]

The Iranian state spokesman compared the internet to arms control, while the Minister of Science Research and Technology promoted the mass censorship program as an "open internet for academics".[115][116][117] The Minister of ICT also promised journalists that they would be granted internet access.[118]

On June 11th, the Minister of Tourism and Culture Heritage demanded internet access and enabled SIM cards for foreign tourists.[119]

On June 15th, the Minister of Communications denied copying Chinese internet rules.[120]

August 2023 Anonymous internet number of traffic stastitics rose in Iran.[121] Minister of ICT claimed he too was dissatisified with internet restriction speed/quality and offered before parliament whitelisting of some of internet network websites.[122][123]The criminal content workgroup claimed they would unblock some websites e.g Google Play, YouTube and Twitter for universities and merchants or businesses per government needs. [124] Tehran University of Technology has developed a program for granting selective internet domains access to Iranian citizens based on their social class called Goshayesh "Opening".[125][126]

In 2003, Voice of America began to operate a proxy server for Iranian citizens, free of charge, along with internet privacy company Anonymizer and the International Broadcasting Bureau. Whenever the proxy is blocked, it uses a new IP address until that one is also blocked.[155] Some websites and keywords related to pornography are blocked in the American proxy, although the list of banned words is publicly available.[155][156] Non-pornographic websites may be inadvertently blocked; for example, the banning of ass blocks access to the website of the United States Embassy.[157]

Following the 2009 Iranian presidential election, the US Senate ratified the Victims of Iranian Censorship Act (VOICE), which allocated US$50 million to fund measures "to counter Iranian government efforts to jam radio, satellite, and internet-based transmissions."[158]

In 2018, the Trump administration increased American economic sanctions against Iran. These sanctions were not intended to prevent Iranian civilians from accessing basic internet services, but multiple American technology companies subsequently blocked access to their services in Iran. Iranian users who work with the Iranian government or are involved in terrorism were also sanctioned; technology suppliers risk prosecution by the US government if selling web services to sanctioned users.

Identifying an internet user can be difficult, so some companies have entirely discontinued serving users in Iran.[159] Apple's App Store[160] and the messaging platform Slack[161] have been unavailable in Iran since 2018. In 2019, access to free services on GitHub, GitLab, Amazon Cloud, and several video game services were also suspended.[162][159][163] Such suspensions, however, may inadvertently strengthen censorship, although Amazon Cloud, another banned service, hosts most tools that help Iranians bypass the censorship filters. Internet developers have been forced to use less secure hosting tools, which leave websites vulnerable to cyberattacks and risk users' security.[164]

These suspensions continue despite a General License D-1, first issued by the Office of Foreign Asset Controls (ORAC) in 2014, which authorizes private companies to provide certain "personal communications" technologies to users in Iran.[165] When sanctions were re-imposed by the United States, the US Treasury Department highlighted that General License D-1 would help with "fostering internet freedom and supporting the Iranian people."[166]