Iran has increasingly put restrictions on cybercafés as well. In January 2012, the Cyber Police FATA has asked Café owners to ensure that anyone coming to Internet Cafes must confirm their full name, identification number, address and phone number. They are also required to keep the IP number and websites visited for a period of six months[12]. Further all of the cafes are monitored by surveillance cameras.
Iran has shown the ambition to form a nationwide internet, “Halal or pure Internet” called Iran’s National Information Network (NIN)[13]. This project has continued for some time now, and it aims to replace access from World Wide Web servers to access to Iran based Servers. This way, the regime hopes to control the internet in a more measured manner, keeping it “halal” and, therefore, lacking any need for censorship. It has also been argued that this will protect Iran from any cyber attacks and will provide faster internet. These concerns are founded in the numerous cyber attacks on Iran’s Uranium Enrichment facility, codenamed Stuxnet,[14] and the viral attack on Iran’s main export terminal, Kharg Island[15]. Under the new regime (see below) the Supreme Council for Cyberspace decided to continue with NIN, arguing that NIN will not prevent access to Global Internet but will provide a faster internet experience.[16] It is possible that Iran may be looking at the way China controls domestic internet, by providing domestic (faster) servers and search engines, and keeping restrictions on international websites but not fully closing the global internet.
Authorities searched five offices of newspapers for Arman, Aseman, Bahar, Etemad and Shargh and arrested 58 journalists (including online journalists and bloggers) in a period of 3 weeks in late January and early February 2013. These arrests were justified as “preventive” efforts by authorities,[10]but again, demonstrate the threat to free expression and privacy for Iranian net users.
Iranians use VPNs to get around the technical restrictions placed by the state. However the state directly regulates the use of VPN, which means VPNs not purchased from the government are illegal. State regulated VPNs can be used to monitor internet usage and also prevent users from accessing blocked websites. An Alternative to VPN is a TOR that is used when VPNs are blocked, but these are very slow and also risky as the use of TOR can be tracked. Hossein Ronaghi Maleki who used a pseudonym and was part of a group spreading know-how on using internet proxies, was arrested and sentenced to 15 years imprisonment[11].
Cybercafés Restrictions
Halal Internet