Viber Company Refutes Tapping Claims by Iranian Officials
"You should know from the cases the Iranian Cyber Police has pursued and ...
Internet freedom
Yahoo! to Offer Iranians Email Services Again
One year after Yahoo! decided to exclude Iran from the list of countries that can access some of its services, the company has resumed providing access to Iranian users to open accounts and use the company’s Yahoo Messenger services. ...
Death Sentence for “Insulting the Prophet” on Facebook
A blogger found guilty of insulting the Prophet Mohammad in his postings on Facebook has been sentenced to death. An informed source told the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran that the blogger, Soheil Arabi, will be able ...
Grand Ayatollah Issues Fatwa Stating High Speed Internet is against Sharia
A Grand Ayatollah in Iran has determined that access to high-speed and 3G Internet is “against Sharia” and “against moral standards.” In answer to a question published on his website, Grand Ayatollah Nasser Makarem Shirazi, one of the country’s highest ...
Ruling of Combined 127-Year Sentence for Facebook Users Violates Iran’s Own Laws
A source knowledgeable about the case of eight young Iranians sentenced to heavy prison sentences for their activities on Facebook told the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran that in an illegal ruling, Branch 28 of the Tehran Revolutionary ...
Eight Iranians Active on Facebook Sentenced to Combined 127 Years in Prison
Eight young Iranians active on Facebook have been sentenced to a total of 127 years in prison by Branch 28 of the Revolutionary Court which found them guilty of acting against national security, propaganda against the state and insulting Islam ...
Eight Facebook Users Sentenced to Decades in Prison
The Revolutionary Court in Tehran has sentenced eight Facebook users to a total of 123 years in prison on charges of “propaganda against the state” and “insulting the Supreme Leader.” ...
Bill to Ban VPNs Would Cut Internet Access
The use of Virtual Private Networks (VPN) by millions of Iranians to circumvent strict state censorship of the Internet could become a crime if a bill currently being discussed by the Iranian Parliament becomes law. ...
Yahoo Should End Restrictions on Users in Iran Say Rights Groups
In a letter to Yahoo!, nine human rights and online freedom organizations have urged the Internet giant to end its restrictions on users of its services inside Iran. As a signatory to the letter, the International Campaign for Human Rights ...
Iran’s New Methods of Internet Filtering Put Users At Risk
New concerns about the safety of Internet communications have emerged following statements by Iranian authorities about the government’s utilization of new, more complex, and undetectable filtering methods. The new methods used by government organizations not only limit access to Internet ...
Restrictions on Internet Access and Mobile Apps Grow During Rouhani Administration
Iranian users are experiencing inconsistent filtering of various Internet and mobile application technologies as Iranian authorities determine their communications policies. On December 26, 2013, the Secretary of Iran’s Working Group to Determine Instances of Criminal Content on the Internet ...
Judiciary Official Urges “Maximum Punishment” for Detained IT Professionals Even Before Trial
The Iranian Judiciary has announced charges against the seven Internet specialists arrested in December 2013, accusing them of collaborating with hostile foreigners and insisting on the harshest punishment available. One month after the IRGC Intelligence Unit arrested several Internet specialists ...
Rights Lawyer Says Citizenship Rights Charter Is “Distraction”
In an interview with the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran, lawyer Khalil Bahramian, who has represented many political prisoners, said the draft Citizenship Rights Charter is just a distraction for the public. ...
More Detained Social Network Users: Forced Confessions Feared
The IRGC Intelligence Unit has arrested two individuals active on Facebook, in a continuing wave of arrests against Internet and social media users and professionals. Mohammad Amin Akrami and Mehdi Rayshahri Tangestani are the latest detainees of IRGC, according to ...
One Week After Arrest, Detained Internet Technologists Appear Handcuffed on TV
Iranian state television has shown images of several men they claim have been in contact with and funded by “espionage networks,” charged with “offering reporter training seminars in Turkey and Malaysia,” “internet activities aiming for a ‘soft overthrow’ of the ...
Iranian Police Boast Presence Monitoring Social Media
Iran’s Cyber Police is actively monitoring Iranians’ activity on the internet, Colonel Massoud Zahedian, Commander of the Morality Police, told ISNA today. “The Police are present on the Internet and are monitoring environments such as Facebook, Instagram, WeChat, etc.,” he ...
Iran’s Minister of Communications Says He Will Oppose Stringent Internet Blocking
Iran’s Minister of Communications and Information Technology told a group of reporters today that his Ministry is not interested in continuing the extreme controls the Iranian government has exercised over the past eight years, but rather wishes to see a ...
Iranian Judiciary Seeks China Model of State Censorship for Facebook
In a direct warning to cabinet officials in the Rouhani administration who openly use Facebook and other social media sites that are officially forbidden to the Iranian citizenry, Iran’s Police Commander Esmaeel Ahmadi Moghaddam criticized “certain government officials” today, telling ...
Eight Netizens Arrested While Iran Contemplates Unblocking Facebook and Twitter
According to a Kerman Province Judiciary statement, the Prosecutor for the General and Revolutionary Courts of Rafsanjan has said that eight individuals have been arrested for publishing “blasphemous content in cyberspace.” ...
Rouhani Cabinet Sends Mixed Messages About Facebook and Twitter
Just a few hours after the Iranian Students News Agency (ISNA) reported that Iran’s Minister of Communications Mahmoud Vaezi told reporters today that Facebook and Twitter will remain blocked in Iran, his ministry released an official statement saying that the ...
Cartoon 58: Bugged and Under Surveillance
Throughout the 35 years since the establishment of the Islamic Republic of Iran, there have been numerous accounts of phone tapping and surveillance of dissident, opposition, civil society, and public figures, journalists and activists and even celebrities, by Iranian officials ...
Iranians’ Access To Technology Now “Up To The Private Companies”
In an interview with the Campaign, independent Internet security expert Collin Anderson, who participated in the campaign to lift the technology sanctions, described the general license as “an exemplary case of civil society organizations from different fields working together.” Congratulating ...
Censorship and Power in Iran with Jon Stewart and Maziar Bahari (Slideshow)
On May 8, 2013, the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran hosted a screening in New York of Iranian-Canadian director Maziar Bahari’s film Forced Confessions in a joint event with the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) and the PEN ...
Jon Stewart Hosts Iran Censorship Event
Highlighting the heightened censorship and the situation of journalists in Iran, the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran hosted a screening of Iranian-Canadian director Maziar Bahari’s film Forced Confessions in a joint event with the Committee to Protect Journalists ...
Accused of Waging “Soft War,” Christian Pastor Beaten in Iran’s Evin Prison
Christian pastor Saeed Abedini was conducting a routine visit to the non-profit orphanage his family helped to start in Rasht when Iranian security forces arrested him and seized his passport in July 2012. Five months later, Iranian courts convicted him ...