UPDATED Iran Special: EA Unfiltered by Authorities

UPDATE 21 JUNE: It looks like our award may have been taken away. Word comes in from a source in Tehran that the filter on EA has been removed.

UPDATE 14 JUNE, 2030 GMT: Word comes in from Iran that the Iranian authorities have removed the filter on Race for Iran, perhaps their most vocal supporter amongst non-Iranian websites.

EA, however, continues to wear its badge of honour proudly --- we are still blocked.



All of which raises an intriguing question. Are Iranian officials so jittery that they slapped on a mass filter of all WordPress-based sites and are now "clearing" those like RFI who are seen as being on their side? Or was this an example of a bureaucracy which made a mistake in its cyber-policy?

In the 366 days that we have covered post-election Iran, we have received many plaudits, but one achievement has always eluded us.

Until now.

This weekend we learned ---after hundreds of blogposts, thousands of tweets, and countless comments on EA --- that we have finally been filtered in Iran.

The Latest from Iran (13 June): And So It Goes On….

We are not very keen on censorship. We remember also that we are not the only recipient of this award: thousands of other websites have been blocked or filtered by the Iranian regime. We hope that readers in Iran, and in other countries which filter websites like ours, still find a way to reach us, and we thank those who assist in that effort.

For the moment, however, we would like to bask in the glory of this recognition. Surely we can appreciate that our dedication to the promotion of the Iranian people rather than the agenda of the Iranian state, our belief that "Iran" should not be reduced to the nuclear issue, our hope that rights and justice are not merely rhetorical playthings has finally been acknowledged by the powers that be in Tehran?

But wait....

We learn that we were not alone in receiving the Unsafe to Read accolade yesterday. It appears that Race for Iran --- perhaps the most vocal, self-promoting website defending the Iranian Government --- was also put on the blacklist.

Sigh --- I guess anyone can get a Bad Foreign Agent of Pernicious Velvet Evil award from President Ahmadinejad and his friends these days.

Iran Overview: Striking Poses from Sanctions to Cyber-War to "Terrorism"

We closed last night by noting a couple of postures from the Iranian Government over its nuclear programme and supposed economic strength.

So while we look towards analysis of the significant developments in the political situation, we catch up this morning by noting some other poses and threats, beginning outside Iran.

US and Europe: We're Going to Get You

Following the UN resolution for tougher sanctions on Tehran over its nuclear programme, the Obama Administration has made the first public play of what it supposedly means. It has expanded US sanctions on Iran, imposing penalties on more than three dozen additional companies and individuals.

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said the new penalties were aimed at those who were helping Iran develop its nuclear and missile porgrammes and evade international sanctions.



"In the coming weeks we will continue to increase the financial pressure on Iran," Geithner said. "We will continuee to target Iran's support for terrorist organizations."

European Union governments have joined in with a draft statement, to be discussed at a summit today, that would not only enforce the UN sanctions by restricting "dual use” goods with potential military applications and imposing additional curbs on Iranian banks and shipping but also go further, targeting Iran’s oil and gas industries.

European penalties would affect “key sectors of the gas and oil industry with prohibition of new investment, technical assistance and transfers of technologies, equipment and services.”

Iran: We're Coming to Get You (on the Web)

Meanwhile in Tehran, Iranian officials were issuing yet another warning that they would most definitely catch anyone who dared use the Internet to oppose the regime.

Iran police chief Esmail Ahmadi-Moghaddam said a new "internet police" force was being created to "identify threats and remove them". The agency would be up and running "within the next couple of months," the security chief said, to deal with the "unique and serious threats are felt by users and the society" from the "relatively new" Internet. Ahmadi-Moghaddam continued, "Identifying these threats and removing them and passing new laws applicable in this space is part of an effort to prevent any harm."

The police chief's statement followed repeated declarations by the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps of its Internet surveillance and sabotage operations to crush dissent.

"Don't Try and Get Us" --- Foreigners and Terrorists, Chapter 83

Iran, amidst more arrests before and after the first anniversary of the election, played up the allegation of foreign support of those seeking "regime change" by calling in the British Ambassador. The Islamic Republic News Agency reported that the message was, "The Islamic Republic of Iran demands a serious inquiry by the British government into this issue and a report of its findings."

The summoning of the Ambassador followed a Tuesday proclamation by Minister of Intelligence Heydar Moslehi that Iranian forces had broken up a plot to bomb Tehran squares on 12 June: ""Two terrorist teams of hypocrites [the People's Mojahedin of Iran] were identified and their key members were arrested."

Iran's Green Communications: Beyond Twitter to "Small Media" (Enayat)

Regular readers know how disconcerted I have been by shallow commentary dismissing the role of new communications --- often framed superficially as a dismissal of "Twitter Revolution" --- in information and dialogue during Iran's post-election conflict.

So it is refreshing to see an analysis which tries to get beyond the simplicities to assess not only what has happened but what might happen with this information, dialogue, and activism, despite the increasing efforts of the Iranian regime to shut down communication. I would take up some of the points put forward in this article --- I think it underestimates what channels have been opened and what links have been maintained through "not-so-small media" and networks via and beyond the Internet --- but I think it opens up a productive discussion.

Mahmood Enayat writes for Index on Censorship:

The 12th of June was the anniversary of the disputed Iranian presidential election. The ensuing events of last summer challenged assumptions about the political impact of the media, especially the internet, on Iranian society.

Prior to the protests a lot was said about the importance of the internet as a “free space”, where opposition discourse was thriving, especially in the context of its limited manifestation in the offline world. The Persian blogosphere was hailed as one of the most vibrant non-English speaking communities where youth, women, homosexuals, and religious and ethnic minorities were expressing and to some extent mobilising themselves. Occasionally, the internet also played a “fourth estate” role — that is, the ability to create an independent institution making the authorities accountable for their actions. There were a number of secretly recorded amateur videos documenting the wrongdoing of some Iranian officials — the subsequent wide coverage of those videos made it very hard for the Iranian officials to deny the incidents.

These two political functions of the internet — a “free space” and a “fourth estate”, also played important roles in the aftermath of the election. The internet became the backbone of the green movement, as severe restrictions were imposed on the movement’s offline activities. Citizens used their mobile phones and became the eyes and ears of the international media whose correspondents had been expelled from Iran. The videos documented the participation of Iranians in street protests and the brutality of force used against them by the authorities, resulting in the widespread practice of adding the postfix “revolution” to social media platforms like Twitter and YouTube.

However, the Green Movement was not simply allowed to use the internet for its own end. The Iranian authorities tried to stop the “Twitter revolution” by waging an active war against internet freedom. The authorities went beyond simple internet content filtering by tampering with internet connections and mobile phone services, by jamming satellite broadcasting, and by hacking and attacking opposition websites. They also monitored online dissenters and used the information obtained to intimidate and arrest them. They threatened service providers in Iran to remove ‘offensive’ posts or blogs and more significantly, they tried to fill the information void created by these measures with misinformation.

There has been a sense of disappointment amongst the supporters of the Twitter revolution. We should try to make sense of its shortcomings.

Social and conventional media need each other

It became clear that social media (staffed by citizen journalists) and conventional media needed each other to function. Given the government’s severe restrictions on access to the internet and its infiltration of the social media’s platforms with fake content, its audience was limited. Citizen journalists relied on conventional media to take the best of their content and reach a larger audience, while the latter needed the former to continue their news cycles in the absence of correspondents on the ground.

Twitter and Facebook: Bridging rather than mobilising

Facebook and Twitter were more influential in mobilising diaspora Iranians showing solidarity rather than mobilising street protests inside Iran. Owing to their knowledge of context and language, diaspora Iranians were also able to connect the outside (mainly the media) to the inside. Both the platforms were filtered before the election and remained inaccessible in Iran during the protests.

Do not underestimate the basics

In the days after the disputed election, the Iranian authorities shut down many of the news websites set up by supporters of [Mir Hossein] Mousavi and [Mehdi] Karroubi and other opposition groups by arresting the technical teams involved in their maintenance, initiating intense Denial of Service (DOS) attacks and hacking. The opposition clearly took having access to secure hosting and capable technical support for granted and did not expect these incidents to occur. Its lack of preparation meant that many of them struggled to get back online and to remain online in the following months.

Knowing how to operate safely online is important

There have also been a number of reports that activists were presented with copies of emails exchanged with other activists during their interrogation and were arrested for their online activities. Many of them were also asked to provide the credentials of their Facebook accounts and were questioned extensively on their relationships with friends on their list. The Iranian authorities used this fear for further power projection by claiming that the Iranian Police has access to all the emails and SMS messages exchanged in Iran and can monitor them. All of these tactics have created fear and self-censorship among the ordinary internet users and activists in Iran, a fear that is perpetuated by a lack of knowledge of the very basics of information security.

There will be more limitations on the internet

The Iranian authorities used to consider the development of the internet in Iran as an enabler for economic development. During the Rafsanjani and Khatami presidencies, the government invested heavily in expanding the internet infrastructure, resulting in a high growth rate of internet users. However, this has now changed and Ahmadinejad’s government has allocated $500 million in this year’s annual budget (2010-11) to “counter the soft war”. This effectively means imposing more restrictions on opposition movement’s use of the internet. The fifth economic plan devised by his government does not have any indicators for increasing the internet penetration rate in Iran, contrary to the past two economic development plans. This indicates that the Iranian government is not interested in increasing the number of internet users in Iran, at least not for the next five years.

The internet's reach is limited

Internet users in Iran are predominantly middle and upper middle class and internet access remains limited among the less affluent sections of Iranian society. Mousavi has stated numerous times that the Green Movement should try to reach out to the working class and bring it on board.

But the internet is the only available media option

The internet is the only media space that is available to the Green Movement as other forms of media are heavily controlled by the government and it is not possible to launch a newspaper, radio or TV station inside Iran. Satellite broadcasting of political TV stations based outside Iran will be subjected to heavy jamming. The short wave radio broadcasted from outside is also losing its audience significantly, as highlighted in a recent audience survey by the BBC World Service.

The Green Movement should think “small media”

The Green Movement and its supporters inside and outside Iran need to go beyond the common perception and prescribed use of the internet (like YouTube, Twitter and Facebook) and come up with new and innovative solutions. Mousavi himself has encouraged the Green Movement to embrace “small media”, which relies on offline social networks for further distribution of information. He is reminding the Green Movement of the lessons learned from the 1979 and Constitutional Revolutions, as both used small media to mobilise support and achieve their aims.  Small media has four main characteristics:

- It is distributed and is therefore not prone to blockage
- It produces sharable information products
- It relies on highly resourced and networked individuals to reproduce sharable information products
- It uses the social networks of highly resourced individuals to distributed sharable products to less resourceful individuals

Leaflets and cassette tapes were widely used in 1979 revolutions. These days the digital equivalents of them will be CDs, DVDs, memory sticks, email, Bluetooth on mobile phones, peer to peer file sharing etc. The green movement only has the internet but it has to change its approach towards it by going beyond its widely prescribed uses. It is time to replace the Twitter revolution with small media discourse.