Mass surveillance in Iran

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Mass surveillance in Iran looks into Iranian government surveillance of its citizens. [1] [2] [3]

Contents

Surveillance technology

According to a report by surveillance research group IPVM, Tiandy Technologies is selling surveillance technology to Iran's Revolutionary Guard, police, and military. The company sells cameras and AI-enabled software, such as facial recognition technology, software that claims to detect someone's race, and "smart" interrogation tables and "tiger chairs". [4] [5] [6] According to reports, Tiandy has signed a five-year deal to supply video surveillance equipment to Iran. Iran has unveiled plans for a "social credit" system as well as its own "Great Firewall," which will allow the government to block foreign information as it sees fit. [7]

Phone Apps for Mass Surveillance

On 15 February 2018, The National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) claimed that the country's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and Ministry of Intelligence and Security are using a web of state-produced mobile phone applications to conduct "mass surveillance" of protesters and dissidents. [8] The said spyware-enabled apps are available on Google Play, Apple Store, and GitHub. [9] [10]

VPN

In March 2022, it was announced that using VPNs in Iran might become illegal under the new Iran Internet Law. On March 17, Article 19, along with more than 50 other organizations, including Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, and Access Now, called on Iranian authorities and those in bilateral talks with the country to pressure the Iranian parliament to repeal the 'User Protection Bill.' Foreign tech companies operating in Iran, such as Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and Twitter, will be required to follow all of the Bill's provisions, appoint a representative in the country, and submit the identification and history of their users' activities to the government upon request. Platforms that do not comply with the government's requirements will face bandwidth limiting and bans. [11] [12] [13]

Human Rights and Iranian Internet Bill

A group of human rights organizations criticized Iran's attempts to impose extensive censorship and governmental control over the country's internet infrastructure. In March 2022, the Iranian Parliament approved the "draconian" Regulatory System for Cyberspace Services Bill — formerly known as the User Protection Bill. If passed, it "would violate an array of human rights of Iranians, including the right to freedom of expression and right to privacy." Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, the Committee to Protect Journalists, Global Voices, and other rights organizations signed a joint statement urging Tehran to "immediately withdraw the measure in its entirety." [14]

Iran Intranet

On 24 August 2020, several members of the Iranian Majlis Parliament submitted a proposal to the parliament's presidium to "organize social media," highlighting the importance of replacing foreign messaging applications with native ones. On 7 September 2020, it was reported that if Internet platforms do not comply with the Islamic Republic's laws and regulations, they will be censored. [15]

Related Research Articles

Computer and network surveillance is the monitoring of computer activity and data stored locally on a computer or data being transferred over computer networks such as the Internet. This monitoring is often carried out covertly and may be completed by governments, corporations, criminal organizations, or individuals. It may or may not be legal and may or may not require authorization from a court or other independent government agencies. Computer and network surveillance programs are widespread today and almost all Internet traffic can be monitored.

China censors both the publishing and viewing of online material. Many controversial events are censored from news coverage, preventing many Chinese citizens from knowing about the actions of their government, and severely restricting freedom of the press. China's censorship includes the complete blockage of various websites, apps, video games, inspiring the policy's nickname, the "Great Firewall of China", which blocks websites. Methods used to block websites and pages include DNS spoofing, blocking access to IP addresses, analyzing and filtering URLs, packet inspection, and resetting connections.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mass surveillance</span> Intricate surveillance of an entire or a substantial fraction of a population

Mass surveillance is the intricate surveillance of an entire or a substantial fraction of a population in order to monitor that group of citizens. The surveillance is often carried out by local and federal governments or governmental organizations, such as organizations like the NSA, but it may also be carried out by corporations. Depending on each nation's laws and judicial systems, the legality of and the permission required to engage in mass surveillance varies. It is the single most indicative distinguishing trait of totalitarian regimes. It is also often distinguished from targeted surveillance.

The Great Firewall is the combination of legislative actions and technologies enforced by the People's Republic of China to regulate the Internet domestically. Its role in internet censorship in China is to block access to selected foreign websites and to slow down cross-border internet traffic. The Great Firewall operates by checking transmission control protocol (TCP) packets for keywords or sensitive words. If the keywords or sensitive words appear in the TCP packets, access will be closed. If one link is closed, more links from the same machine will be blocked by the Great Firewall. The effect includes: limiting access to foreign information sources, blocking foreign internet tools and mobile apps, and requiring foreign companies to adapt to domestic regulations.

Center for Democracy & Technology (CDT) is a Washington, D.C.–based 501(c)(3) nonprofit organisation that advocates for digital rights and freedom of expression. CDT seeks to promote legislation that enables individuals to use the internet for purposes of well-intent, while at the same time reducing its potential for harm. It advocates for transparency, accountability, and limiting the collection of personal information.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Internet censorship in India</span> Overview of Internet censorship in India

Internet censorship in India is done by both central and state governments. DNS filtering and educating service users in suggested usages is an active strategy and government policy to regulate and block access to Internet content on a large scale. Also measures for removing content at the request of content creators through court orders have become more common in recent years. Initiating a mass surveillance government project like Golden Shield Project is also an alternative discussed over the years by government bodies.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Internet censorship</span> Legal control of the internet

Internet censorship is the legal control or suppression of what can be accessed, published, or viewed on the Internet. Censorship is most often applied to specific internet domains but exceptionally may extend to all Internet resources located outside the jurisdiction of the censoring state. Internet censorship may also put restrictions on what information can be made internet accessible. Organizations providing internet access – such as schools and libraries – may choose to preclude access to material that they consider undesirable, offensive, age-inappropriate or even illegal, and regard this as ethical behaviour rather than censorship. Individuals and organizations may engage in self-censorship of material they publish, for moral, religious, or business reasons, to conform to societal norms, political views, due to intimidation, or out of fear of legal or other consequences.

North Korea ranks among some of the most extreme censorship in the world, with the government able to take strict control over communications. North Korea sits at the bottom of Reporters Without Borders' 2022 Press Freedom Index, ranking 180 out of the 180 countries investigated.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Internet censorship in Iran</span> Iranian government-sponsored internet censorship

Iran is notable for the degree of internet censorship by its government. Iran was the second place in the world for internet censorship in 2022 after repeatedly shutting off the internet in parts of country and blocking access to social media platforms to curb protests sparking from of Mahsa Amini’s death, a new poll has showed. The country now targets Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) in order to completely cut off the people from access to outside media. Several popular social media platforms and instant messaging applications are blocked by the Iranian government and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), including YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, WhatsApp, Telegram, Snapchat, Reddit, Medium, Instagram, and Threads. Some streaming services, including Netflix and Hulu, are also blocked by the government. Websites relating to health, science, sports, news, pornography, and shopping are also routinely blocked.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Internet censorship in Hong Kong</span> Fact about Hong Kong

In general, there is relatively little Internet censorship in Hong Kong beyond laws that criminalize the distribution of unlicensed copyrighted material and obscene images, particularly child pornography when compared to the rest of China. The Hong Kong Bill of Rights elaborates on these and other rights enjoyed by the people of Hong Kong.Although Hong Kong law provides freedom of speech and press, and freedom of expression is protected by the Hong Kong Bill of Rights, the Hong Kong national security law gives the government the power to "take down any electronic messages published" that the government considers endangering national security. The government has blocked several anti-government, doxxing or politically sensitive websites after the commencement of the law, leading to increased concerns of Internet censorship in Hong Kong.

This list of Internet censorship and surveillance by country provides information on the types and levels of Internet censorship and surveillance that is occurring in countries around the world.

WeChat and Weixin are a Chinese instant messaging, social media, and mobile payment app developed by Tencent. First released in 2011, it became the world's largest standalone mobile app in 2018 with over 1 billion monthly active users. WeChat has been described as China's "app for everything" and a super-app because of its wide range of functions. WeChat provides text messaging, hold-to-talk voice messaging, broadcast (one-to-many) messaging, video conferencing, video games, mobile payment, sharing of photographs and videos and location sharing.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Internet censorship in Russia</span>

In Russia, internet censorship is enforced on the basis of several laws and through several mechanisms. Since 2012, Russia maintains a centralized internet blacklist maintained by the Federal Service for Supervision of Communications, Information Technology and Mass Media (Roskomnadzor).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">VPN blocking</span>

VPN blocking is a technique used to block the encrypted protocol tunneling communications methods used by virtual private network (VPN) systems. Often used by large organizations such as national governments or corporations, it can act as a tool for computer security or Internet censorship by preventing the use of VPNs to bypass network firewall systems.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mass surveillance in China</span> Network of monitoring systems used by the Chinese government

Mass surveillance in the People's Republic of China (PRC) is the network of monitoring systems used by the Chinese central government to monitor Chinese citizens. It is primarily conducted through the government, although corporate surveillance in connection with the Chinese government has been reported to occur. China monitors its citizens through Internet surveillance, camera surveillance, and through other digital technologies. It has become increasingly widespread and grown in sophistication under General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) Xi Jinping's administration.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Network sovereignty</span> Effort to create boundaries on a network

In internet governance, network sovereignty, also called digital sovereignty or cyber sovereignty, is the effort of a governing entity, such as a state, to create boundaries on a network and then exert a form of control, often in the form of law enforcement over such boundaries.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">NSO Group</span> Israeli cyber-espionage and malware firm

NSO Group Technologies is an Israeli cyber-intelligence firm primarily known for its proprietary spyware Pegasus, which is capable of remote zero-click surveillance of smartphones. It employed almost 500 people as of 2017.

Pegasus is spyware developed by the Israeli cyber-arms company NSO Group that is designed to be covertly and remotely installed on mobile phones running iOS and Android. While NSO Group markets Pegasus as a product for fighting crime and terrorism, governments around the world have routinely abused the spyware to surveil journalists, lawyers, political dissidents, and human rights activists.

ExpressVPN is a VPN service offered by the British Virgin Islands-registered company Express Technologies Ltd. The software is marketed as a privacy and security tool that encrypts users' web traffic and masks their IP addresses.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Government censorship of Telegram</span>

The Telegram Messenger application has been blocked by multiple countries.

References

  1. ↑ "Iran: Government surveillance capacity and control, including media censorship and surveillance of individual Internet activity". Archived from the original on 2019-06-16. Retrieved 2022-04-27.
  2. ↑ "Special Report: Chinese firm helps Iran spy on citizens'". Reuters. 22 March 2012. Archived from the original on 2022-04-27. Retrieved 2022-04-27.
  3. ↑ "Iran 'hides spyware in wallpaper, restaurant and games apps'". BBC News. 8 February 2021. Archived from the original on 2021-08-07. Retrieved 2022-04-26.
  4. ↑ Mosley, Tate Ryan (December 15, 2021). "This huge Chinese company is selling video surveillance systems to Iran". MIT Technology Review. Archived from the original on April 4, 2022. Retrieved March 24, 2022.
  5. ↑ "Tiandy: The Chinese Company Sells Surveillance & Repression Tools to IRGC". Iran True. December 16, 2021. p. 1. Archived from the original on December 16, 2021. Retrieved April 9, 2022.
  6. ↑ "Chinese company sells video surveillance systems to Iran". Market Research Telecast. December 21, 2021. Archived from the original on August 31, 2022. Retrieved March 25, 2022.
  7. ↑ Ikeda, Scott (January 6, 2022). "Chinese Company Found to be Selling Video Surveillance Systems to Iran; Product Line Includes "Ethnicity Tracking," Accessories for Torture Chairs". CPO Magazine. Archived from the original on January 20, 2022. Retrieved March 25, 2022.
  8. ↑ Taylor, Guy (February 15, 2018). "Iran Devising Phone Apps For 'Mass Surveillance' of Dissidents, New Report Says". National Council of Resistance of Iran U.S Representative Office. Archived from the original on March 1, 2021. Retrieved March 28, 2022.
  9. ↑ Taylor, Guy (February 16, 2018). "Iran devising apps for 'mass surveillance' of regime opponents: Report". AP News. p. 1. Archived from the original on August 31, 2022. Retrieved March 28, 2022.
  10. ↑ Taylor, Guy (February 15, 2018). "Iran devising apps for 'mass surveillance' of regime opponents: Report". The Washington Times. p. 1. Archived from the original on April 26, 2022. Retrieved April 9, 2022.
  11. ↑ "Iran tightens grip on internet freedom". DW. February 15, 2022. Archived from the original on March 25, 2022. Retrieved April 12, 2022.
  12. ↑ Castro, Chiara (March 26, 2022). "Using a VPN may be a crime under strict new Iran Internet law". Tech Radar.Pro. p. 1. Archived from the original on March 29, 2022. Retrieved March 30, 2022.
  13. ↑ Rubin, Michael (December 10, 2019). "Evolution of Iranian surveillance strategies toward the internet and social media". AIE. Archived from the original on January 30, 2022. Retrieved March 24, 2022.
  14. ↑ "Human rights groups condemn 'draconian' Iranian internet bill". Arab News. March 17, 2022. p. 1. Archived from the original on April 2, 2022. Retrieved April 3, 2022.
  15. ↑ "Security Official Threatens More Internet Censorship As Iran Moves Towards Intranet". Radio Farda. September 7, 2020. p. 1. Archived from the original on September 21, 2021. Retrieved April 1, 2022.
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