Fighting cyberspace dissent in Iran
Updated on 16 June 2009
Potkin Azarmehr has been in close contact with the campaign team of Mehdi Karroubi, one of the unsuccessful candidates in Iran's presidential election. He writes about the battle to control cyberspace in Iran.
It was no wonder that the mosques became the centre for organising the revolution against the shah. In the absence of all political parties, the mosques were the only network available. Each mosque needed a minimum of three people to run and so they became the substitution for organised political parties.
Thirty years later, still in the absence of political party organisations, and with an overwhelming young population, perhaps it is no wonder that the cyberspace is now the substitute for organising networks of activists.
The Islamic Republic intelligence unit has set up a specific unit to deal with cyberspace dissent. There is a constant cat and mouse game between the web users and the intelligence ministry. Each time one gets more sophisticated another comes up with new ides.
To break the filtering of the “undesirable” sites, many methods have been deployed by the Iranian internet users. The most successful, although it is still limited, is the free software developed by the Chinese dissidents called freegate. Most, however, use the proxy servers which change constantly.
Facebook was the most powerful cybertool used by the Iranian dissidents up to the elections. By using Facebook, networks of dissidents came together, kept each other informed and immediately posted news, videos, posters and whatever was needed to organise. It is no wonder that after the election, Facebook was the first target.
The opinions contained in this article do not reflect the views of Channel 4 News
