Global Voices Advocacy » Fred Petrossian

Iran: Innovations in Cyber Dictatorship

Fred Petrossian — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 15:23:47 +0000

In the latest examples creative repression over the internet, the Islamic regime has used Skype as a long-distance interrogation tool, and wrested control over a Facebook group for photos of hot guys and girls from its administrators.

Skype interrogation

In order to increase the pressure on one foreign-based Iranian journalist for the BBC, a relative in Iran was arbitrarily detained for nearly two weeks, and the journalist was interrogated over the internet on Skype video.

According to Human Rights Watch, the Iranian government has been intimidating and detaining relatives and friends of foreign-based Persian-language journalists to obtain information or silence them.

Iranian blogger Tahriyeh Khamoush writes [fa]:

… reading this story we can see what a monster the Islamic Republic has become. 40 minutes of interrogation via Skype while the journalist’s sister was jailed. The journalist was at her home in London while she was interrogated by revolutionary guards intelligence agents. The journalist only heard the voices in Iran while the interrogators could both see her and listen to her voice.

The journalist’s sister was released after the interrogation. She said she was forced to make false confessions broadcast on TV.

There are three jailed bloggers and journalists, Parastou Dokouhaki, Mazieh Rasouli and Sahmoldin Borghani who are under pressure to confess collaboration with BBC.

Attacking a Facebook group

Message by cyber police on what was formerly the 'Daaf & Paaf' Facebook page promoting a photo contest.

About a week ago a Facebook page called Daaf & Paaf (meaning “hot girl & hot boy”) came under the control of Iran's cyber police who announced [fa] on the group's Facebook “wall” that “the administrators of this group have confessed to promoting banality”.

The group promoted an online photo contest for hot Iranian men and women, and had around 27,000 fans [the content is not available anymore].

Cyber police reportedly arrested four men and women for administrating the Facebook page.

Faryadeazadi collected and republished [fa] several comments that users left on the Daaf & Paaf Facebook page after it came under control by Iranian security forces:

You beat the poor guys and got their passwords, and now you think you performed a masterpiece by controlling this page… Look at our cyber police, instead of running after criminals and thieves, it gets involved with this kind of story… Mark Zuckerbeg was involved too, go arrest him as well.

A long history

The Iranian regime not only represses bloggers and filters websites and blogs, but has many times used the internet creatively as a tool to increase pressure or spread fear.

In 2009, the regime employed crowd sourcing to target suspects when the protest movement erupted. Using widely disseminated online photos from post-election demonstrations, a website of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps called Gerdab (which means ‘vortex'), encouraged people to submit information that could lead to the arrest of protesters.

We can add to this menu of creativity, the recent “Law of Computer Crimes” that make almost all ordinary users computer criminals.

Indeed, the internet is not only a gift for freedom lovers but also for repressive machines.

Iran: Blogger was sentenced to 14 years in prison

Fred Petrossian — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 12:26:54 +0000

Several bloggers reported that Mehdi Khazali, a blogger and publisher was sentenced to 14 years in prison. The blogger was sentenced to 90 lashes too. He can appeal this sentence.

Iran: Blogger under pressure to give TV confession

Fred Petrossian — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 19:36:27 +0000

Iranian blogger Hossein Ronaghi Malki is under pressure to give TV confession according to his mother. He is serving a 15 year prison sentence in Tehran.

Iran: Another blogger in jail

Fred Petrossian — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 18:55:07 +0000

Hadi Nili says according to confirmed reports from Tehran, Parastoo Dokouhaki, Iranian blogger and journalist, is arrested by authorities. Parastoo is a women activist as well. She writes in her blog “Zan-Nevesht“and in its English version “The Remains of the Day“.

Iran: Jailed Islamic Cleric and Blogger on Hunger Strike

Fred Petrossian — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 18:50:51 +0000

In the last 33 years since the Islamic Revolution, Iran has been a kind of paradise for Islamic clerics who gained power and rule over the country. But not for all of them. Mohammad Sadegh (Arash) Honarvar Shojayi, a cleric and a blogger is one who is currently sharing the pain of imprisonment for his ideas and writings along with many other prisoners. Has the Islamic Republic democratized repression? In October 2011, after one year of jail, the blogger was sentenced to four years in prison and lashes.

Arash Honarvar Shojayi had online profiles on Facebook, Twitter, and a blog. He is a critic of the concept of Guardianship of the Jurists (Vlayat Faqih), which means leadership under one cleric, the position currently held by Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. He was accused of propaganda activities and activities against national security, as well as defaming the regime and the clergy. He was released recently due to health problems, but arrested again after an interview. He has been on hunger strike since last Monday.

Youth for Human Rights blog says [fa]:

Arash Honarvar Shojayi had been among political prisoners in section 350 in Evin Prison but he was transfered to section 325, among jailed clerics who do not share his critical ideas. The authroities warned if he continues his hunger strike, nobody in that section has right to receive any phone calls. Such warnings are made to provoke other prisoners to raise pressure on Mohammad Sadegh Honarvar Shojayi.

In 2010, Mohamad Sadegh Honarvar Shojayi published several posts regarding human rights violations in Iran against Shi'a religious leaders. The blogger quoted Amnesty International's 1998 report on Iran:

Since the establishment of the Islamic Republic of Iran in 1979 serious human rights violations have continued. Victims have included a broad range of political opposition from members of left-wing groups to monarchists, as well as ethnic and religious minorities. There has also been a pattern of restrictions placed on Shi’a religious leaders opposed to fundamental tenets of the Iranian political system such as velayat-e faqih.

In the Islamic Republic, even some clerics, do not favor of the regime.

Iran: A cleric blogger on hunger strike

Fred Petrossian — Sun, 15 Jan 2012 18:27:11 +0000

Mohammad Sadegh Honarvar Shojayi, a blogger and cleric started his hunger strike on Monday. He was arrested by the Prosecutor General on charges of conducting an interview with the reformist Kalameh website.

Iran: Khazali was arrested again

Fred Petrossian — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 17:25:21 +0000

Shoorezar reports [fa] Mehdi Khazali, a blogger, publisher and son of a leading conservative cleric and former Council of Guardians member, Ayatollah Khazali, was arrested again last week. He was beaten up by security forces. Read more here.

Will Iran Soon Have Its Own “Clean Internet”?

Fred Petrossian — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 19:36:53 +0000

The Iranian regime may be losing its battle to filter content on the internet, but meanwhile it is trying news things - from slowing down internet speeds, to developing a so-called “national internet” or “clean internet”. (read Intranet). Iranian members of parliament have also discussed a proposal to place blogs, comments and SMS mobile messages under the same government regulation as the mainstream media.

Creative alternatives to filtering?

Iranian authorities see the internet as a real battleground and consider citizen media and social networking as tools of “soft war”. Over several years they claim to have blocked and filtered millions of websites and blogs. Now several bloggers have reported [fa] that Iran's Corporate Computer Systems [fa] say the goal is for Iran to be entirely cut off from the World Wide Web once the country launches its own national internet network.

Mehdi Jafari via The Green Voice of Freedom

In October, many bloggers were happy to quote a remark by a top official who said, “Filtering is useless.” Mehdi Jafari, described as the technology director for the Student Basij Organization (youth paramilitaries supporting the Islamic regime), claimed that 17 million Iranians are on Facebook even though the site has been filtered in Iran… and that “300,000 Persian language websites are fighting against our religious and national beliefs.”

Jafari did not mention a source for these statistics.

Iranian blogger Ghalbir quoted the Basij leader and says it proves that filtering is a joke.

At the end of October the semi-official news agency, Mehr, reported on interruptions and extreme slowness of internet around the country. Several bloggers, including Azari quoted from a story that said the majority of Iran's 36.5 million internet users rely on dial-up internet to be connected with 56k speeds… but that it had become even slower or inaccessible with no explanation from the authorities.

Reza Taghipour, the Minister of Information and Communication Technology eventually offered a response, saying the internet slowdown was due to infrastructure changes necessary for developing a “clean internet” [another name for the planned “national internet”].

Introducing the “Clean Internet”

A clean internet for Iran? Image with '102 broom' by Nesster on Flickr (CC BY-SA 2.0)

In the past months, Iranian bloggers have reacted to several media reports of plans for the “clean internet” or “national internet”. Blogger Uniirani says [fa] The Islamic Republic’s decision is a big leap towards transforming into North Korea. Another blogger, Visionthetruth, said [fa] that after the internet is nationalised, it will be the turn of satellites.

For all the years that a national internet project has been discussed, Iranian media agreed on at least one thing: there is a cloud of ambiguity over project.

Donayeh Eghtesad, an Iran-based newspaper, wrote [fa] in 2010:

The project was an initiative of Ahmadinejad’s government five years ago and it has still four years to go before it becomes operational… there is a curtain of ambiguity on this project. It is not clear what, where, how and who is going to use the national internet… The Minister of Communication and Technology, Reza Taghipour, says the national internet will be a broadband, fast network inside the country to answer the government’s electronic needs… at present, the internet for households is provided by private companies, but the Ministry of Communication is researching the possibility of doing it by itself.

Two years earlier, Hamshari, an Iran-based news website, wrote that a “national internet” is an ambiguous term. They quote a media expert who says that if this project aims for 100 per cent filtering and casting away of the international internet, it is neither useful nor operational.

So whose darling is the national internet? Ahmadinejad’s government, without a doubt. According to Hamshari, the Iranian parliament refused [fa] to give an initial $10 million in funds five years ago, forcing the government to seek other financing.

As if the idea of a “National internet” was not ambiguous enough, the Iranian Minister of Communication, Reza Taghipour, launched another term: “Clean internet”. Taghipour used [fa] used the term as early as December 2010. He said they wished to shield the internet from dirty actions and protect human beings. He said that at first, the internet was created for peaceful purposes, but now there are black spots in it. The Ministry of Communication say [fa] the clean internet won’t contain any immoral content or content encouraging atheism, divisive controversies, nor hopelessness.

Alireza Shirazi, the founder of a leading blogging software provider, says it is not clear what a clean internet is, but that if the idea bears fruit, there will most likely be no Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, Myspace… or any of the currently filtered sites on it. He explains the difference between a filtering system and this clean internet idea. For the former, there is a blacklist (filtered sites), but for latter there will be only a white list (limiting the internet to permitted sites).

Now with talk of a clean internet or even a Halal internet, we could also just call it a virtual Frankenstein. Call it whatever you want, but the fact remains that as the regime swings its clenched fist over the Iranian internet, sometimes it hits its targets and other times it misses.

Iran: Blogger May Face Death Penalty

Fred Petrossian — Thu, 22 Dec 2011 13:52:46 +0000

Several bloggers and news sites reported [fa] that Mohammad Reza Pour Shajari, a jailed blogger , may face charge of ‘Waging War Against God' (moharebeh). A death sentence can be pronounced in this case. He criticized Islam and Islamic Republic in his blog, Iran Land's Report.

Iran: Jailed blogger stopped his hunger strike

Fred Petrossian — Sun, 18 Dec 2011 19:35:20 +0000

Several sites reported [fa] that Hossein Ronaghi Maleki, Iranian jailed blogger stopped his hunger strike after about one week.Hossein is serving a 15 year prison sentence in the security ward of Evin Prison.