Report: Iranian Hackers Target Activists’ Mac Devices With Revamped Malware
State-sponsored Iranian hackers, who had until now focused almost exclusively on civil and human rights-focused users of the Windows and Android operating systems, ...
Tag : internet freedom
February 6, 2017
Ailing Political Prisoner Imprisoned for Facebook Posts Denied Medical Care
Soheil Arabi, who is currently serving a seven-and-a-half year prison sentence for the content of his social media posts, is being denied urgent medical care, his lawyer told the ...
October 13, 2016
10 Things You Should Know About Iran’s Multi-Billion Dollar National Internet Project
“National Internet” Aims to Give State Control Over Iranians’ Access to Information A few months after the Iranian government launched the first phase of its “national information network” (NIN), many questions still surround Iran’s domestically ...
September 14, 2016
Cartoon 154: Bandwidth
In a meeting with the Minister of Communications, conservative cleric Ayatollah Nasser Makarem Shirazi recommended allocating the bandwidth used by the popular networking service Telegram to Iran's National Intranet, in order to deter millions of Iranian ...
September 14, 2016
Twenty-Year Old On Death Row After “Confessing” on Promise of Freedom
Death Sentence for Posting “Anti-Islamic” Content on Social Media Sina Dehghan was just 19-years-old when the Revolutionary Guards told him, while they were interrogating him, that if he confessed to the charge of “insulting” ...
September 9, 2016
Iranian Judiciary Must Stop Punishing Media for Reporting Officials’ Corruption
September 9, 2016—Iran’s Judiciary must halt the prosecution of media outlets which carried out their journalist duty in publishing reports on alleged corruption in the Tehran Municipality and City Council, the International Campaign for Human Rights ...
August 22, 2016
Prominent Labor Activist’s Wife Awaits Verdict for Alleged Facebook Post
Najibeh Salehzadeh was never shown the “evidence” Najibeh Salehzadeh, who says she was falsely charged for posting “insulting” material on Facebook, is awaiting a verdict following her trial at Branch 1 of ...
August 16, 2016
Android Phone Users in Iran Face New Threat by Hackers
Popular Telegram App Remains Main Target Hackers posing as friends are using phone numbers based in the UK to contact civil rights and political activists in Iran to ...
August 12, 2016
Man Imprisoned for Facebook Posts Seeks Reduced Sentence
Soheil Arabi, whose death sentence for “insulting the prophet” was struck down by Iran’s Supreme Court in 2015 but remains imprisoned for posting comments critical of the Islamic Republic on social media, ...
July 25, 2016
Real Target of Tehran’s Demand for Apple to Open Office in Iran is US Sanctions
Tehran’s recent ultimatum to Apple, the US tech giant, to open up an office in Iran or face a ban on Apple products in the country, was presented as a bid to ...
July 8, 2016
Man Who Was Imprisoned in Iran for Posting Jokes on Facebook Denied Timely Appeal Verdict
Soheil Babadi has written an open letter detailing the torture he experienced during interrogations. Computer engineer Soheil Babadi, who was imprisoned in Iran for posting jokes on a satirical Facebook page, has ...
June 3, 2016
Negligence by Major Tech Companies like Google and Telegram Aiding Iran’s Cyber Army
Tech Giants’ Failure to Implement Security Measures Endangers Millions of Users Large technology firms are failing to provide sophisticated and country-specific user security measures, and as a result, are helping Iran’s state agencies target Iranian citizens online, an ...
June 3, 2016
Hardline Council Fires New Shot against Rouhani Administration in Battle Over Social Media in Iran
Directive Forcing Messaging Apps to Store User Data in Iran Would Give Authorities Access to Accounts The directive by Iran’s Supreme Cyberspace Council to require social messaging apps to start storing user data in ...
May 17, 2016
Iran’s Fashion Industry under Assault; Details of Arrests of Models by Revolutionary Guards Surface
Eight Arrests and Scores Interrogated in "Project Spider 2" May 17, 2016—Eight people working in Iran’s fashion industry have been arrested and formally charged in an industry wide crackdown led ...
April 26, 2016
Revolutionary Guards’ Cyber Attacks Now Directed at Rouhani Cabinet Members
IRGC Actively Recruiting Technical Experts to Staff New Hacking Team April 26, 2016—Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, who have long waged cyber attacks against the country’s activists and journalists, have extended their hacking attacks to Rouhani administration ...
April 15, 2016
Hunger Striker in Critical Condition Vows to Continue Strike
Political Prisoner Protests His Imprisonment and Denial of Medical Care Prisoner of conscience Hossein Ronaghi Maleki, who has been on dry and wet hunger strikes since March 26, ...
April 5, 2016
Iranian Internet Freedom and Cyber Security at RightsCon
Fundamental Changes in Content Delivery: Opportunities and Challenges On the first day of the RightsCon conference, hundreds of participants from around the world shared their insights on various panels focused on freedom of expression on the Internet and ...
April 1, 2016
Iranian Political Prisoner Goes on Hunger Strike To Protest Denial of Health Care
Prisoner of conscience Hossein Ronaghi Maleki has been on a wet hunger strike since March 26, 2016 to protest being denied medical care for his kidney disease, according ...
March 18, 2016
New App Lets Iranians Download Information Via Satellite and Bypass State’s Internet Censorship
Mehdi Yahyanejad, Toosheh's founder. A young company run by a group of Iranian-American professionals based in California has developed a free, easy-to-use application that provides Iranians faster Internet access ...
March 14, 2016
Iranians Looking Abroad to Escape State-Controlled Internet
Data privacy and censorship concerns are driving Iranian companies and individuals to foreign Internet servers because domestic providers are powerless to protect their customers against state spying and control. “Company executives have told me ...
March 3, 2016
Iranian Activist Receives Six-Month Prison Sentence for Facebook Posts
The civil rights activist Esmail Ahmadi-Ragheb has been sentenced to six months in prison for “propaganda against the state” by Branch 1 of the Revolutionary Court in Shahriar, Tehran Province, for posting content on social ...
February 25, 2016
Rouhani Administration Under Pressure to Shut Down Iran’s Most Popular Mobile App Prior to Election
Telegram Has Emerged as Major Platform for Reformist and Centrist Candidates Iran’s Telecommunication’s Ministry has been under intense pressure by hardline organizations, including Iran’s Police, to shut down a number of the most popular mobile applications in ...
February 23, 2016
Iran to Spend $36 Million on Internet “Smart Filtering,” to No Avail
The Iranian government, in a joint project with several domestic universities, is spending $36 million to develop what it calls “smart filtering” in order to strengthen its Internet censorship capabilities. Smart filtering refers to ...
February 18, 2016
Technology Website Staffers Rushed to Prison Before Appeals Court Verdict
Four convicted staff members of a leading Iranian technology website who were free on bail while awaiting an Appeals Court verdict on their cases were taken to a prison in Kerman Province on February 17, ...
February 16, 2016
Imprisoned Facebook Activist Begins Wet Hunger Strike
An Iranian activist imprisoned for his social media activity has gone on a wet hunger strike to protest the Judiciary’s rejection of his request for conditional release. Amir Golestani, 35, was ...