December 04, 2009
Iranian Internet Crackdown Extends Abroad
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Iran's leadership is crossing national borders in an effort to silence online critics.
While Iranians at home are being silenced online, according to a recent Wall Street Journal investigation, the Internet crackdown is extending to Iranians abroad as well. ’s leadership is also crossing national borders in an effort to silence critics. Iranian government is targeting world-wide dissidents with harassment techniques created to silence their global critiques.
The WSJ reports that a 29-year-old Iranian-American engineering student was sent an email warning him to cease his critiques of the government in Tehran on Facebook or else his relative in
According to the investigation, “dozens of individuals in the U.S. and Europe who criticized Iran on Facebook or Twitter said their relatives back in Iran were questioned or temporarily detained because of their postings…Five interviewees who traveled to Iran in recent months said they were forced by police at Tehran’s airport to log in to their Facebook accounts.” Several reported having their passports confiscated due to the harsh criticisms against the Iranian government that they had posted online regarding the handling of the presidential election in June.
A German intelligence report indicates that Iranian intelligence operatives are monitoring about 900 critics of the Iranian regime in and try to intimidate the protestors in by videotaping them.
On November 14th, a new Iranian police unit was formed to fight “insults and the spreading of lies” on the Internet called the “Internet Crime Unit”. Internet laws in are purposely kept vague so that the regime can arrest people and bloggers for any reason.
The suppressive president understands what a powerful tool the Internet is in disseminating information and seeks to harness the Net to spread his own message. Ahmadinejad is himself a blogger. Ahmadinejad is said to allot 15 minutes a week to writing on his blog, “Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s Personal Memo’s”.
Related Articles:
(WSJ) Iranian Crackdown Goes Global
(WSJ) Ahmadinejad, the Blogger
Posted by Buzz Webster at December 4, 2009 04:33 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
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