Science and Technology

Iran-HRM – Online Tyranny: Revolutionary Guards hunting Iran Internet users Iranians are considered one of the most vibrant populations using the internet. More than half of the 80 million Iranians, especially the youth, use the internet to share news and information, debating in private, and conducting business. Iranian regime however, has used the internet to suppress its own people. This …

Radiofarda – Iran says it has “successfully” tested a firewall it calls the country’s “cyber-defense shield”, after announcing plans for a test several times before. The Iranian Telecommunications Minister Mohammad Javad Azari Jahromi said on Thursday May 16 “Iran’s young scientists have developed a cyber-defense shield for the country’s automated industrial systems.” Jahromi claimed that the firewall “can practically stop …

RFL/RE – Iran is concerned about the U.S. cutting off internet connection to the country and is mulling “drills” to make sure its banking and other vital services could work in such an environment A “task force” has been set up to “combat U.S. cyber threats,” Iran’s Minister of Communication and Information Technology said on Monday, May 13. “To neutralize …

CHRI – Authorities’ Focus on Political Activists while Violent Individuals Go Unnoticed on Social Media Following the killing of Mostafa Ghasemi, a cleric in the city of Hamedan, by an individual who had displayed his violent intentions on his Instagram account, Iran’s security and military establishments have expressed support for Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei’s demand to impose greater restrictions on the Internet …

CHRI – One year after Iran blocked access to the Telegram messaging app, used by a reported 40 million users, officials are admitting that the state’s attempts to attract users to Iranian-made versions have failed. “Today I can say with certainty that our domestic messengers have been defeated because they were not welcomed,” said Hamid Fatehi, a deputy minister at the Ministry …

Radiofarda – A lawmaker in Iran has revealed that the intelligence and communication ministries joined forces to create and manage diversionary social media apps to woo people away from secure international platforms. Iran banned the popular Telegram messaging app last year after mass protests and later two new apps appeared, labelled Talagram (golden telegram in Persian) and Hotgram, trying to attract users …

rferl.org – Parliamentary speaker Ali Larijani says Iran will continue to enrich uranium in accordance with its nuclear accord with several world powers regardless of moves by the United States to put a stop to it. “Under the [nuclear accord] Iran can produce heavy water and this is not in violation of the agreement. Therefore, we will carry on with …

Radiofarda – Controlling social networks at the time of crises is a “must” that should “seriously be considered,” says the head of the Islamic Republic’s Passive Defense Organization (PDO), Brigadier General Gholamreza Jalali. Jalali, who is a Revolutionary Guard general, made the remarks April 28 while visiting Bushehr, the home of Iran’s sole nuclear power reactor, to supervise a drill …

HRW – With 253 executions in 2018—including six people executed for offenses they allegedly committed as children—Iran is still among the world’s leading executioners, according to Amnesty International’s recent annual report on global trends in executions. Yet executions in Iran dropped by half last year, from 507 in 2017.   Samereh Alinejad pardoned her son’s killer moments before his hanging. © ISNA The …

Radiofarda – Mehr news agency in Iran says Iran has “designed and manufactured” three new types of missiles. According to Mehr, the three air-launched missiles are Heydar, Qamar Bani Hashem, and Dehlavieh. The missiles have been developed by the Iranian Ministry of Defense in collaboration with the army’s Helicopter Unit, the report said. Mehr reported the range of these missiles …