On February 19, 2024, the Supreme Council of Cyberspace published the resolution “Exploring Solutions to Increase the Share of Domestic Traffic and Counteract Anti-Censorship Tools.”(alternative link) One of the most controversial parts of this resolution was clause 6, which prohibited the use of VPNs. However, given the legal drafting rules and the principle of legalityContinue reading “The use of VPNs is prohibited, but not criminalized”
Tag Archives: disruption
Sistan and Baluchestan; An Internet Outage Laboratory
From December 31, 2023, to January 30, 2024, Iran experienced two significant internet access disruptions due to issues with internet gateways. These incidents mirrored similar outages that occurred twice in November 2023. Additionally, on January 16, 2024, both fixed and mobile internet services were cut off in Sistan and Baluchestan, with a similar pattern ofContinue reading “Sistan and Baluchestan; An Internet Outage Laboratory”
End of the Definite Internet Shutdown Pattern in Sistan and Baluchestan; Continuation of Unexplained Disruptions
Seven months after the order by Ibrahim Raisi, the President of Iran, to the Ministry of Communications to investigate the cause of internet slowness and disruptions and to resolve them, no response has been given to this directive. Instead, he reiterated this order during the opening session of a communications project on December 22, 2023,Continue reading “End of the Definite Internet Shutdown Pattern in Sistan and Baluchestan; Continuation of Unexplained Disruptions”
Iran’s Surveillance State: A Year of Expansion
Analytical Summary The Iranian government embarked on a new path in 2023, enacting laws and policies that aimed to restrict the hardware and software choices of its citizens in the long run. The authorities seek to monitor citizens’ through tracking software, heighten control over hardware imports, coerce them to adopting and using their favored applications,Continue reading “Iran’s Surveillance State: A Year of Expansion “
Iran’s Internet Crisis in November: A Month of Disruptions
In the month of November, Iran’s internet infrastructure faced significant challenges. The country experienced three major national-level outages, along with two additional disruptions affecting mobile and internet operators. In all three outages, the Telecommunication Infrastructure Company attributed the fault to disruptions in transmission lines and international internet routes. The severe network routing disruption, or ActiveContinue reading “Iran’s Internet Crisis in November: A Month of Disruptions”
Scheduled Internet Disruptions following the Anniversary of Mahsa (Jina) Amini’s Death
September 16 marked the first anniversary of Mahsa (Jina) Amini and as well as the anniversary of Bloody Friday in the city of Zahedan. Sistan and Baluchestan province has faced weekly internet shutdowns every Friday for a year now. Since November 2019, Iran has implemented internet shutdowns nearly ten times, each in response to eitherContinue reading “Scheduled Internet Disruptions following the Anniversary of Mahsa (Jina) Amini’s Death”
Women, Life, and Internet Shutdowns: Network Monitor, September 2022
On 13 September 2022, Iran’s so-called “morality police” arrested Mahsa Amini (Jina in Kurdish), a 22 year old Kurdish woman in Tehran for wearing “improper” hijab according to the authorities. Within a few hours, authorities informed Mahsa’s family that she had been taken to a hospital, where she died later the same week. While authoritiesContinue reading “Women, Life, and Internet Shutdowns: Network Monitor, September 2022”
Network Monitor – August 2020
In August Iran’s internet faced two main issues. Firstly, the aggressive disruption of circumvention tools including 1.1.1.1, and the second relating to failures in Tehran’s Milad Tower, where an unpaid electric bill plunged a number of its data centers into darkness, knocking a number of websites hosted on them offline. Our day-by-day analysis of keyContinue reading “Network Monitor – August 2020”
Policy Monitor – July 2020
This month, online activism by Iranians with the #DontExecute (In Persian #اعدام_نکنید) made global trends, which called for the revocation of execution orders issued against three young men arrested during the November 2019 protests. The popular hashtag was followed by a string of internet disruptions, which are documented in full in July’s Network Monitor. Meanwhile,Continue reading “Policy Monitor – July 2020”
Network Monitor – June 2020
Internet users in Iran were confronted with a further series of network disruptions in June. As before, the disruptions were largely met with silence from internet service providers and government authorities. Despite this silence, the impacts of the disruptions were still very much felt by users. Unexplained disruptions such as these can also only fuelContinue reading “Network Monitor – June 2020”