Iranians Turn to Tech Tools to Evade Internet Censors A crackdown aimed at helping stamp out protests could weaken Tehran’s control of information online By Sam Schechner
https://www.wsj.com/articles/iranians-turn-to-tech-tools-to-evade-internet-censors-1515493800
Iran’s new offensive against social media is showing signs of backfiring.
Authorities in Tehran have ratcheted up their policing of the internet in the past week and a half, part of an attempt to stamp out the most far-reaching protests in Iran since 2009.
But the crackdown is driving millions of Iranians to tech tools that can help them evade censors, according to activists and developers of the tools. Some of the tools were attracting three or four times more unique users a day than they were before the internet crackdown, potentially weakening government efforts to control access to information online.
“By the time they wake up, the government will have lost control of the internet,” said Mehdi Yahyanejad, executive director of NetFreedom Pioneers, a California-based technology nonprofit that largely focuses on Iran and develops educational and freedom of information tools.
An official at Iran’s United Nations mission didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
In recent days, Iran has said it has contained days of public demonstrations against the regime. Protesters used social media to spread the word about, or bear witness to, the protests, as people did during the Green Movement in 2009.
Iran blocked major social-media sites, such as Twitter Inc. and Facebook Inc., in 2009. CONTINUE AT SITE
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