Posts in category “Debate”

• Information Controls in Iran’s 2017 Presidential Election

  Introduction In Iran, elections and heightened Internet censorship often go hand in hand. A few weeks before the contested 2009 election, Facebook was blocked and the SMS network was shut down. When the next presidential election rolled around in 2013, the authorities disrupted circumvention tools, and network throttling slowed Internet speeds to a crawl. Such […]

• Iran on the Day to End Mass Surveillance

    This was originally posted in Global Voices Advocacy.  The revelations surrounding the surveillance practices of the NSA and other Western government intelligence agencies may have made 2013 the year the Internet lost its innocence within democratic states. But this state of perpetual, pervasive surveillance has long been part of everyday life within the Islamic […]

• Will the Rouhani Administration be Successful in Lifting the Filter on Facebook?

  This post was written by ASL19  researcher Mahsa Alimardani for the Iran Media Program. When the Rouhani administration took office in an environment of pressing foreign and domestic issues, hopes for a more free and open internet were widespread among the Iranian populace and international community. The debate over whether Facebook will be unblocked in […]

• 

  Rouhani’s Tweets Leave Users Wondering: Does Real Change Lie Ahead?

  This was originally posted to Global Voices Advocacy. In recent months, Iranians who use Facebook and Twitter have begun to see a new, more intimate side of government officials who have opened accounts on these social media platforms. Simple messages like a shared personal photo of President Hassan Rouhani boarding his plane, or a tweetdescribing his intention to […]