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 1
Internet Filtering in
Iran
Overview
The Islamic Republic of Iran continues toexpand and consolidate its technicalfiltering system, which is among the mostextensive in the world. A centralizedsystem for Internet filtering has beenimplemented that augments the filtering conducted at the Internet service provider(ISP) level. Iran now employs domesticallyproduced technology for identifying andblocking objectionable Web sites, reducing its reliance on Western filtering  technologies. The regulatory agencies inIran charged with policing the Internetcontinue to expand. The RevolutionaryGuard has begun to play an active role inenforcing Internet content standards. Inconjunction with expansive surveillance, this increase in regulatory attentionexacerbates an online atmosphere thatpromotes self-censorship and discouragesdissenting views. The blocking of politicalWeb sites during the 2009 presidentialelections energized opposition to Internetcensorship within Iran and has broughtfresh attention to the issue of presscontrols.
Background
Speech in the Islamic Republic of Iran isheavily regulated. The limits to freedom of expression in Iran are grounded in theconstitution and speech restrictionsextend over a broad range of topics,including religion, immorality, socialharmony and politics. In comparison to thewell developed state controls over printmedia, radio and television, the Internetinitially offered a relatively unfetteredmedium for communication in Iran,allowing independent media andopposition voices to flourish.
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The Internetalso has provided Iranian expatriates aplatform for publishing opinions inopposition to the government, such aspro-secular and reformist politicalviewpoints, outside of the reach of standard offline strategies for enforcing speech restrictions. The growing popularityof the Internet has led to increasing government scrutiny. Dissenting voicesonline, including human rights activists,bloggers and online media outlets, havebecame the target of governmentregulatory action and are subject to arrest,imprisonment and torture.
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Internet 
RESULTS AT A GLANCE
Filtering
No evidence offilteringSuspectedfilteringSelectivefilteringSubstantialfilteringPervasivefiltering
Political
 
Social
 
Conflict/security
 
Internet tool
 
Other factors
Low Medium High Not applicable
Transparency
 
Consistency
 
 
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KEY INDICATORS
worst best
GDP per capita, PPP (current international $)…………………….....7,968………………Life expectancy at birth (years)……………………………………………….70.2……………………………………..…Literacy rate (% of people age 15+)…………………………………………82.4………………………………………….Human development index (out of 179)…………………………………..…84……………………………………Rule of law (percentile)……………………………………………………………..21…………>Voice and accountability (percentile)……………………………………………8……Digital opportunity index (out of 181)………………………………….……105…………………Internet users (% of population)……………………………………………......35……………………………
control mechanisms have continued togrow in scope and scale to address thisdigital challenge to information control inIran. Regulators have invested in moresophisticated technical controlmechanisms, and new regulatory agencieshave been created to identify and blockexpression deemed offensive. Thepresidential elections in 2009 led to anincrease in online political organizing,which provided a further impetus forincreasingly contentious controls on theWeb sites used by legitimate oppositioncontenders.Efforts to control online speech by theIranian government have relied primarilyon large-scale Internet filtering and the threat of targeted legal action. Thedeclaration of a spokesman from theRevolutionary Guard to launch ten thousand blogs written by members of theBasij, a volunteer Iranian paramilitaryforce under the authority of the IranianRevolutionary Guards, hints at theadoption of a different strategy for shaping online information: a government-backedwar of words on the Internet.
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This issimilar conceptually to the governmentinformation dissemination strategies seenin just a small number of countries, forexample, the fifty-cent army in China,where workers are reportedly paid forproducing pro-government content, and inRussia, where pro-Kremlin bloggers aresuspected of receiving governmentsupport.
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Internet in Iran
Internet usage in Iran continues toincrease at a sharp rate. Over the pasteight years, the number of Internet usersin Iran has grown at an average annualrate of approximately 48 percent,increasing from under one million Internetusers in 2000
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to around 23 million in2008.
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This rate of growth is higher thanany other country in the Middle East.Internet users now account forapproximately 35 percent of thepopulation of Iran. This Internetpenetration rate is considerably higher than the Middle East average of 26percent.
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 The Persian blogosphere has beenheralded as one of the largest and mostactive in the world. The number of activePersian blogs is estimated to beapproximately 60,000—a formidablenumber of independent voices for acountry accustomed to tightly controlling  the press.
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 Iranian Internet policies reflect a strong  tension between the regulatory urge toreign in free speech and the promotion of innovation and economic growth
 
3supported by expanding access toinformation and communication technologies (ICT). Bolstered by the strong growth in Internet penetration in Iran,Iran’s fourth Five-Year Development Plancalled for enhanced broadbandpenetration with 1.5 million high-speedInternet connections nationwide.
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 However, in October 2006, the Ministry of Communications and InformationTechnology (MICT) issued an order thatappears to have been designed to thwarthousehold access to broadband Internet,forbidding ISPs from providing Internetconnectivity to households and publicInternet access points at speeds greater than 128 kilobytes per second. This policy,which restricts the ability of Internet users to download multimedia content, is likelyintended to hinder access to onlinealternative media sources that mightcompete with the tightly controlled radioand television media in Iran.
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 At the time of this order, approximately250,000 users had access to high-speedInternet service, with demand continuing  to grow.
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Over the prior two years, elevencompanies had been licensed to providesuch high-speed services and hadinvested significant capital in importing  the required machinery and setting up therequired infrastructure. These regulationson Internet access speed were met withintense opposition, including a campaign to overturn the policy by members of parliament.
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Reports at the timesuggested that the restrictions would belifted once more effective content controlmechanisms were put into place.However, the ban on high-speed servicefor households and public access pointsremains in place, although universitiesand private businesses are able to obtainhigh-speed broadband service. Before thispolicy was enacted, fiber-optic networkshad been expanding rapidly in Iran, more than doubling from 2005 to 2007.
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Thegrowth of fiber-optic networks in Iran hassince dropped off precipitously.
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 Mohammad Soleimani, the Minister of Information and Communications, publiclydefended the ceiling on access speeds,and indicated that slower speeds areadequate and that there is no demand forhigher speeds.
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Iran is the only country in the world to have instituted an explicit capon Internet access speed for households.Efforts to gain control over the Internetwere already underway in 2001, when thegovernment of Iran asserted control overall Internet access points coming into thecountry.
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Commercial ISPs in Iran thatoffer Internet connectivity to the public arerequired to connect via the state-controlled Telecommunication Company of Iran (TCI).
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ONI research corroborates that ISPs offering Internet service to thepublic all connect via TCI. The otherinternational connections to the Internetare associated with research andacademic organizations. Designing theInternet infrastructure around agovernment-managed gateway—rare for acountry with this many Internet users—offers a central point of control thatfacilitates the implementation of Internetfiltering and monitoring of Internet use.
Legal and regulatory frameworks
 
Speech regulation in Iran is rooted in itsconstitution, which declares that “themedia should be used as a forum forhealthy encounter of different ideas, but they must strictly refrain from diffusionand propagation of destructive and anti-Islamic practices.”
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Applying theseprinciples to the Internet has proven to bedifficult. A number of governmentregulatory initiatives have been launchedover the past decade to assert controlover online communications, although the
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