Censorship fears as Iran's internet disrupted
Millions of Iranians have suffered serious disruptions to email and social networking services, raising concerns authorities are stepping up censorship of opposition supporters ahead of parliamentary elections next month.
Iranians have grappled with increased obstacles to using the internet since opposition supporters used social networking sites to organise widespread protests after the disputed 2009 re-election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
The government denied any fraud in the vote, which ignited street protests that were crushed violently by security services after eight months.
The country is preparing to hold parliamentary elections on March 2, the first time Iranians will go to the polls since President Ahmadinejad's disputed re-election.
The new internet blockade affected the most common form of secure connections from Friday, according to outside experts and Iranian bloggers.
Traffic was said to have returned to normal on Monday.
"I haven't been able to open pages for days but now it's working again, although slowly," said Hamid Reza, a 20-year-old student in Tehran who was reluctant to give his surname.
The cut-off appeared to target all encrypted international websites outside Iran that depend on the Secure Sockets Layer protocol, which display addresses beginning with https, according to Earl Zmijewski of Renesys, a US company that tracks internet traffic worldwide.
Google, which uses SSL for its Gmail service, reported that traffic from Iran to its email system fell precipitously.
Iran's Ministry of Communications and Technology denied knowledge of the disruption.
"The government is testing different tools," said Hamed Behravan, who reports on Iranian technology issues for the US Government-funded Voice of America.
"They might have wanted to see the public reaction."
National internet system
Many Iranians are concerned the government may be preparing to unveil its much documented national internet system, effectively giving the authorities total control over what content Iranian users will be able to access.
The authorities say it is designed to speed up the system and filter out sites that are regarded as "unclean".
"The internet is an uninvited guest which has entered our country," said Mohammad Reza Aghamiri, a member of the Iranian government's Internet filtering committee.
"Because of [the internet's] numerous problems, severe supervision is required."
He told the daily Arman that internet search engines like Google were a threat to the country.
"We have never considered Google as appropriate to serve Iranian users, because Google is at the service of the CIA," he said. "It has adopted a vivid hostile stance against us."
Iranian authorities have vowed to quell any public protest against the protracted house arrest last year of opposition Green movement leaders, Mirhossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karoubi.
"It could just be a coincidence but my guess is that the system was looking to block communication between opposition supporters," said an Iranian analyst who did not want to be named.
The disruption has riled some Iranian members of parliament and they have vowed to look for those responsible.
An MP, Ahmad Tavakoli, told the semi-official Mehr News Agency that the issue was creating widespread discontent that could "cost the establishment dearly".
"This filtering leads people to break the law, and using proxies makes the blocking of sites and signals ineffective, because using proxies becomes widespread," he said.
Authoritarian Arab governments under popular pressure have sought to shut down Internet service to make it harder for opponents to mobilise protests but with little success.
(Additional reporting by Joseph Menn in San Francisco; Editing by Mark Heinrich)
Copyright Reuters. Click for restrictions.
Here is the original post:
Censorship fears as Iran's internet disrupted
- Harvard Journal Abruptly Cancels Issue on Palestine, Sparking Accusations of Censorship - The Harvard Crimson - July 24th, 2025 [July 24th, 2025]
- A Refuge From Censorship: Why Independent Bookstores Will Save Us - Literary Hub - July 24th, 2025 [July 24th, 2025]
- Freelancing to fill information gaps left by global censorship - Freedom of the Press Foundation - July 24th, 2025 [July 24th, 2025]
- Russian lawmakers pass a bill punishing online searches for information deemed to be 'extremist' - AP News - July 24th, 2025 [July 24th, 2025]
- Amy Sherald Withdraws Exhibition From Smithsonian Amid Concerns Over Censorship - BroadwayWorld.com - July 24th, 2025 [July 24th, 2025]
- AG Bontas Censorship of Pro-Life Speech Challenged in the 9th Circuit - Thomas More Society - July 24th, 2025 [July 24th, 2025]
- Itch Has Now Been Censored By Payment Processors Too We're Slipping Down The Censorship Slope - TheGamer - July 24th, 2025 [July 24th, 2025]
- Efforts to restrict or protect libraries both grew this year - Stateline - July 24th, 2025 [July 24th, 2025]
- After The Party Free Speech At San Diego Comic-Con With The CBLDF - Bleeding Cool News - July 24th, 2025 [July 24th, 2025]
- A Century After the Scopes Trial, Censoring Spirit on Evolution Still Thrives - Evolution News - July 24th, 2025 [July 24th, 2025]
- New Lollipop Chainsaw game and anime adaptation in the works. Publisher promises lots of dark humor and no censorship - AUTOMATON - July 24th, 2025 [July 24th, 2025]
- News in India is being erased from the internet - Index on Censorship - July 24th, 2025 [July 24th, 2025]
- Turkish police arrested magazine staff over Muhammad cartoon, but it doesnt actually depict the prophet - FIRE | Foundation for Individual Rights and... - July 24th, 2025 [July 24th, 2025]
- Are You Laughing Yet? - The Atlantic - July 24th, 2025 [July 24th, 2025]
- In Letter, Artists and Scholars Call for Reinstatement of Whitney ISP Leader Ousted Amid Censorship Controversy - ARTnews.com - July 22nd, 2025 [July 22nd, 2025]
- Yoko Taro Tried to Warn Us About Payment Processors' Censorship in 2024 - 80 Level - July 22nd, 2025 [July 22nd, 2025]
- Summer 2025 Teen Advocacy Institute: Power to the Readers - National Coalition Against Censorship - July 22nd, 2025 [July 22nd, 2025]
- Crying Censorship, US Pressures Foreign Officials in Bid to Counter Tech Regulations - Tech Policy Press - July 22nd, 2025 [July 22nd, 2025]
- Some Implications of Censorship of Equality and Equity in Policy and Public Administration Courses - PA TIMES Online - July 22nd, 2025 [July 22nd, 2025]
- Political turmoil and military tensions see 24 internet restrictions imposed so far in 2025 - Tom's Guide - July 22nd, 2025 [July 22nd, 2025]
- Australian anti-porn group claims responsibility for Steam's new censorship rules in victory against 'porn sick brain rotted pedo gamer fetishists',... - July 22nd, 2025 [July 22nd, 2025]
- Why is self-censoring tape appearing all over Tokyos host club ads?Photos - SoraNews24 - July 22nd, 2025 [July 22nd, 2025]
- Steam Users Rally Behind Anti-Censorship Petition - OpenCritic - July 22nd, 2025 [July 22nd, 2025]
- Stephen Colbert and I: The Tightening of Right-Wing Censorship - Informed Comment - July 20th, 2025 [July 20th, 2025]
- Artists speak out on attempted censorship of views on Gaza - Music Ally - July 20th, 2025 [July 20th, 2025]
- Raging Trump Desperately Tried to Censor Epstein Expos - Yahoo Home - July 20th, 2025 [July 20th, 2025]
- Steams Adult Games Under Threat in Financial Censorship Move That Cuts The Smut - Insider Gaming - July 20th, 2025 [July 20th, 2025]
- Turkey becomes the First to Censor Musks AI Chatbot Grok - Informed Comment - July 20th, 2025 [July 20th, 2025]
- Russia's new censorship push - Kremlin eyes control over WhatsApp and Telegram - RBC-Ukraine - July 20th, 2025 [July 20th, 2025]
- Revealed: The secret code words being used to beat online censorship - The Telegraph - July 18th, 2025 [July 18th, 2025]
- New Russian law criminalizes online searches for controversial content - The Washington Post - July 18th, 2025 [July 18th, 2025]
- Censoring All Men Are Created Equal cost U. Oregon $724K will other universities learn? - The College Fix - July 18th, 2025 [July 18th, 2025]
- Pixar Censorship Report Addressed By Director Of Studios Next Movie: The Movie Will Morph With Or Without You - Screen Rant - July 18th, 2025 [July 18th, 2025]
- Advertising Standards Authority Bans Viva!s Dairy is Scary Ad, Sparking Controversy Over Censorship - vegconomist - the vegan business magazine - July 18th, 2025 [July 18th, 2025]
- This VTuber Just Raised Over $780 for the ACLU. After Steam's New Content Policies? Her Anti-Censorship Message Is Urgent - VICE - July 18th, 2025 [July 18th, 2025]
- Desperate Royals Tried to Censor Leaked Kings Funeral Plans - The Daily Beast - July 18th, 2025 [July 18th, 2025]
- Ready or Not Shows Signs of Recovery After Censorship Controversy - Game Rant - July 18th, 2025 [July 18th, 2025]
- When Superman takes a side: Gaza, censorship, and the criminalisation of empathy in America - India Today - July 18th, 2025 [July 18th, 2025]
- Northeastern research breaches The Great Firewall to look at Chinese censorship - Northeastern Global News - July 16th, 2025 [July 16th, 2025]
- Ready Or Not Modder Retcons 'Censorship' Changes Within An Hour Of New Patch Going Live - IGN Southeast Asia - July 16th, 2025 [July 16th, 2025]
- Foreign journalists in the U.S. are self-censoring to protect themselves from the Trump administration - Poynter - July 16th, 2025 [July 16th, 2025]
- Turkey becomes the first to censor AI chatbot Grok - Global Voices - July 16th, 2025 [July 16th, 2025]
- How Iran and Israel control information - Index on Censorship - July 16th, 2025 [July 16th, 2025]
- "I've Been Dying To Play This Game For Years": With Ready Or Not Launching On Console Tomorrow, It Looks Like The Censorship Has Already... - July 16th, 2025 [July 16th, 2025]
- Spotify could pull out of Trkiye in row over censorship pressure - Music Ally - July 16th, 2025 [July 16th, 2025]
- Indian film board criticised for cutting overly sensual Superman kisses - The Guardian - July 16th, 2025 [July 16th, 2025]
- Superman's Big Kiss Was Cut By The Censors In India - Kotaku - July 16th, 2025 [July 16th, 2025]
- Russia and Belarus unveil censored 'patriotic AI' to rival the West - Ynetnews - July 14th, 2025 [July 14th, 2025]
- I Would Quit Before They Made Me Do That | Feedback - School Library Journal - July 14th, 2025 [July 14th, 2025]
- Reporter's Notebook - July 13th, 2025: An MCTS financial fiasco, Milwaukee arts winners and losers, book censorship in Wisconsin prisons - WTMJ - July 14th, 2025 [July 14th, 2025]
- Internet fumes at censorship of kissing scene in James Gunns Superman: They don't have a problem with Housefull 5 | Bollywood - Hindustan Times -... - July 12th, 2025 [July 12th, 2025]
- Listen to the Trump-Referencing Clipse Track Universal Music Allegedly Tried to Censor - Mother Jones - July 12th, 2025 [July 12th, 2025]
- The EUs Censorship Codes Are Coming for the First Amendment - National Review - July 12th, 2025 [July 12th, 2025]
- Guest column | Book bans dont work. As a kid, I proved it. - The Washington Post - July 12th, 2025 [July 12th, 2025]
- Ira Wells, who literally wrote the book on book bans, shares his thoughts on the politics of censorship - The Globe and Mail - July 12th, 2025 [July 12th, 2025]
- Fans SLAM censorship of 33-second kissing scene in James Gunns Superman: 'They don't have a problem with - Times of India - July 12th, 2025 [July 12th, 2025]
- After the Bombings, Iran Tightened Its Censorship. Iranians Arent Standing For It. - Council on Foreign Relations - July 12th, 2025 [July 12th, 2025]
- All that glitters is not gold: A brief history of efforts to rebrand social media censorship - FIRE | Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression - July 12th, 2025 [July 12th, 2025]
- Zelensky, Zuckerberg, prolifers, a trans journalist, and a gay person with a Bible. How Russia is censoring the Axios/HBO documentary - Mediazona - July 12th, 2025 [July 12th, 2025]
- Chinese censorship-busters claim Tencent is trying to kill its WeChat archive - theregister.com - July 12th, 2025 [July 12th, 2025]
- Ethereum advances toward censorship-resistant scaling with zkEVM layer-1 shift - CryptoSlate - July 12th, 2025 [July 12th, 2025]
- Peskov admitted to the existence of military censorship in Russia - - July 12th, 2025 [July 12th, 2025]
- Trump Imposes 50% Tariff on Brazil: Political Tensions and Censorship at the Center - Cryptodnes.bg - July 12th, 2025 [July 12th, 2025]
- :Director Honey Trehan on His Film Punjab 95 and the Censorship Battle with CBFC - Frontline Magazine - July 12th, 2025 [July 12th, 2025]
- Ready Or Not Fans Hate The Game For All The Wrong Reasons - TheGamer - July 12th, 2025 [July 12th, 2025]
- China Censors Trump's Bomb Threat on Beijing - Newsweek - July 10th, 2025 [July 10th, 2025]
- Review | How censors tried and failed to keep LGBT voices out of the movies - The Washington Post - July 10th, 2025 [July 10th, 2025]
- UN AI summit accused of censoring criticism of Israel and big tech over Gaza war - Geneva Solutions - July 10th, 2025 [July 10th, 2025]
- From gr*pists to nip nops, how self-censorship shapes the language of TikTok : Code Switch - NPR - July 10th, 2025 [July 10th, 2025]
- Corrido Censorship: The paradox of funding and criminalizing cartel stories - The Oakland Post - July 10th, 2025 [July 10th, 2025]
- 'Ready or Not' Devs Unveil a Mod to Remove Censorship In-Game For a More Brutal Experience - player.one - July 10th, 2025 [July 10th, 2025]
- Centre flays X over 'censorship' claim, says platform delayed unblocking accounts - Times of India - July 10th, 2025 [July 10th, 2025]
- Turkey blocks Grok content, becoming first country to 'censor' the AI chatbot - Middle East Eye - July 10th, 2025 [July 10th, 2025]
- X blasts India censorship order on thousands of accounts - New Age BD - July 10th, 2025 [July 10th, 2025]
- 'JSK' Producer Suresh Kumar On Its Censorship: All Issues Began With 'L2: Empuraan' - The Hollywood Reporter India - July 8th, 2025 [July 8th, 2025]
- Some patriotic reflections on Independence Day - The Verge - July 8th, 2025 [July 8th, 2025]
- AI, Fair Use, and the Arsenal of Democracy - RealClearDefense - July 8th, 2025 [July 8th, 2025]
- Democratic nomination for Ithaca Common Council seat decided by just 11 votes - WSKG - July 8th, 2025 [July 8th, 2025]
- A Summer Reading List for Americas 250th Anniversary - Ash Center - July 8th, 2025 [July 8th, 2025]
- DEEP DIVE: $500 MILLION IN MEDIA FUNDING. BUT WHO'S CALLING THE SHOTS BEHIND THE HEADLINES? Its not just censorship its coordination. In Episode 2 of... - July 8th, 2025 [July 8th, 2025]