Internet censorship in Iran

Iran is notable for the degree of internet censorship by its government. Iran was the second place in the world for internet censorship in 2022 after repeatedly shutting off the internet in parts of country and blocking access to social media platforms to curb protests sparking from of Mahsa Amini’s death, a new poll has showed. The country now targets Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) in order to completely cut off the people from access to outside media. Several popular social media platforms and instant messaging applications are blocked by the Iranian government and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), including YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, WhatsApp, Telegram, Snapchat, Reddit, Medium, Instagram, and Threads. Some streaming services, including Netflix and Hulu, are also blocked by the government. Websites relating to health, science, sports, news, pornography, and shopping are also routinely blocked. Iranian internet is controlled by the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Iran and the Supreme Council of Cyberspace of Iran. The head of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Iran is elected by the Supreme Leader of Iran, Ayatollah Khamenei, who advocates that the internet was invented by the enemies of Iran to use against its people. The sixth president of Iran, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, also supports internet censorship in the country. Despite their support of censorship, Khamenei and Ahmadinejad have shared posts on social networks that are blocked in Iran, such as Facebook and Twitter. Iranians use social media despite government restrictions, although many bloggers, online activists, and technical staff have faced prison sentences, torture, harassment, and abuse. In the last few months, two popular applications, WhatsApp and Instagram, were blocked in Iran due to protests against the government. As of July 2023 internet speed in Iran became top five worse low speed ranking worldwide, it had top two worst quality worldwide with 50% packet loss per Electronic Commerce Forum report 33% of the websites blocked.