Iran's government moves to criminalize VPNs (2021)

[sydbarrett74]

The Powers That Be demand accountability from all except themselves. Such has been true throughout human history.

[ianwehba]

[2021]

[ta2234234242]

Yeah... It's not recent. Especially not after the uprising this year.

[dang]

Added. Thanks!

[stunt]

When I was reading about Internet censorship in Iran and what they have done in recent years, it made me think of WhatsApp.

They have blocked most of the popular messaging platforms including Telegram long time ago but for some reason they have not blocked WhatsApp.

Since the current round of protests in Iran started in mid-September, they also blocked WhatsApp, but only because they don't want people organizing, discussing and sharing in groups. Basically everything is blocked now and this new development is most likely a temporary thing until they can handle the protests.

But isn't the fact that they haven't blocked WhatsApp in these years suspicious? Maybe they have access to NSO's Pegasus spyware or something similar. I don't think NSO would sell it to Iran considering NSO is an Israeli company, but they could still do it by using a middleman and not letting NSO know who the real customer is. Or maybe they developed a similar tool themselves because they have the motivation and the money to buy the information even if they are not capable to find it themselves.

[dustyharddrive]

If they use Pegasus, the messaging app doesn’t matter.

[1970-01-01]

Hey Iran, do everyone a favor and criminalize NAT.

[yieldcrv]

2021, They were doing this before it was cool

[codert]

Has already fallen behind PRC.

[ta8645]

There are similar moves to "make people accountable" for their online actions in the west as well; only the details differ, the motivation is the same -- structural control of online activities and content.

[Barrin92]

people are and always have been accountable for their actions both online and offline, that's how things are done in any country with the rule of law. The issue is of course what activities and what content and whether lawmakers are accountable to the people. The internet is not a magical land of anarchy.

[jay_kyburz]

I don't know if somebody is being funny, but I think it's cool that my post on free speech was flagged and censored.