On 5 September, the Iranian regime’s so-called supreme leader Khamenei appointed members to a new institution called “The Supreme Cyberspace Council” formed to increase Internet censoring and crackdown.
The appointees includes the commander of the Revolutionary Guards, Minister of Intelligence, Minister of Defense and heads of other oppressive organizations.
In his ruling Khamenei revealed some of the objectives of this new
organization as, “Observation over current cyberspace conditions and forecasting developments on the Internet inside the country and at the global level, maintaining the security of the cyberspace, effective confrontation against infiltration by foreigners, preventing infiltration, cultural and social damages, and effective confrontation against all cultural attacks.”
To provide legal cover for further Internet crackdown and censorship, Khamenei called for “codifying and confirming security, legal, judiciary and police systems necessary for cyberspace.”
Filtering websites, social media and mobile phones that are using communication apps such as WhatsApp and Viber, and monitoring Iranian users on the Internet are of the most important duties of the new Supreme Cyberspace Council as a political-security entity.
(NCRI – September 6, 2015)
