Censorship is not new in Iran, but since the controversial presidential election in June 2009 it has been revived by state authorities in an unprecedented scale. The Ministry of Intelligence now views websites and social networking sites as enemies of the state. Talking to Voice of America or Persian BBC TV is a criminal act for which activists and ordinary citizens could spend months in prison. New measures taken by the Iranian state, such as filtering sites and showing the state's list of preferred sites could prove self-defeating. The large scale of internet censorship by the Iranian authorities seriously limits the use of previously free sites -- educational, business, artistic and others -- for average users in the country whose numbers are rising. One unintended consequence of new censorship is the expansion of the state's pool of adversaries.
Fars News Agency recently announced that thirty individuals have been arrested for "Cyber crimes." Reflecting the view of security officials, Fars victoriously reports of a 'crackdown' on an organized network of U.S. agents, and more specifically the CIA, who have been engaged in 'cyber war' against the Islamic Republic of Iran. Names of the arrested individuals are not specified. Meanwhile, arrests and harassment of human rights activists as well as ordinary citizens who protested the official results of the election in the demonstrations that followed the election continues.
All these events intensify tensions within Iranian society, as state officials label dissenters and protesters as "agents of the U.S." Despite these pressures, the Green Movement -- protesting the results of the presidential election -- is strengthening. Among other actions, Zahra Rahnavard's (wife of presidential candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi) has given prolific interviews demonstrating the resilience of this social movement and its insistence on being self-sufficient and independent of foreign powers. Her interviews are widely circulated via the Internet.
The families of those arrested during the street demonstrations protesting the official results of the June election, have published open letters circulated via the Internet to authorities in the judicial system to ask for the release of their loved ones. Mohamad Ali Shirzadi's father writes in his open letter to the head of Tehran Judiciary -- Jafari Dowlat Abadi -- posted on the Internet that his family has not received any word from the judiciary about his son, but they know that Mr Jafari Dowlat Abadi follows the news on the Internet and so they hope that he gets their message.
Social movements such as women's movement and the students' movement have used the Internet effectively to their advantage. The One Million Signature Campaign, a vibrant women's rights movement which started in 2006 to gather one million signatures to support changing the discriminatory laws regarding women in Iran, still continues its work despite its website being blocked by the government at least 26 times since its inception. The website was the first winner of Net Citizen award given by Google and Reporters without Borders. Jila Baniyaghob, a dissident journalist, has won "Freedom of Expression" award sponsored by Reporters without Borders.
Her blog, We are Journalist, continues to report violations of human rights in Iran.
In a desperate move to control the cyberspace, the Iranian state is blocking more sites and instead displays a page with reference to state-approved sites. In fact, one can view the list of 'proper' sites in a state-run website: http://mofidlinks.ir/ The move has angered many internet users in Iran without any apparent connection to the Green Movement. The Iranian state and those officials in charge of the Internet regulations in Iran have turned neutral users into opponents of state intervention.
Could this strategy win? It is still the cat and mouse game that has existed since the inception of the Internet in the 1990s in Iran. The youth will find ways to circumvent the censorship and the state will come up with yet another censorship measure.
It is in this context that the U.S. Department of Treasury's easing of sanctions on Iran in order to help further the use of web services is a step in the right direction. Access to information is vital for social movements such as green movement and One Million Signature Campaign, but it is also a demand on the part of neutral internet users in Iran who want to surf the internet freely. A new anti-censorship software developed by Austin Heap -- a media activist -- licensed by US government for export to Iran is first among many advances that will follow the US Department of Treasury's action.
Information and communication Technology (ICT) do not have any inherent liberating value; rather it is the content of the information exchange and the users involved who will turn the Internet into a viable asset. The strategy used by the Iranian state officials seems to have further limit the freedoms of Internet users and by doing so have forever changed the terms of the game. Filtering and anti-filtering are now political matters and the players are no longer limited to the protesters of the official results of the election.
These are all excuses to cover up the fact that this nation has been and is actively attempting to overthrow another regime.