Stop Fundamentalism – The number of Iranian internet users who use various ways to circumvent the country’s internet filtering system in order to access particularly social networks such as Facebook is very high and on the rise, reports Iranian state-run news website, ISNA.
While there are no reports about the percentage of usage available due to Iranian regime’s clampdown on the sale of VPN software, but Iranian Judiciary emphasizes that at least 20 to 30 percent of internet surfers use such software.
According to Iranian laws usage or distribution of any type of software that would allow users bypass the country’s filtering of internet is considered a cybercrime and is punishable by law.
According to Iran’s Minister of Communication, Reza Taghipour, the country has the technical capabilities to track down and arrest those who use such technology.
VPN allows the user to connect to a mediating computer, obviously located outside Iran, and then from that computer connect to the internet and this way, filtering system put in place by the Iranian government to prevent users from having free access to outside world is bypassed.
Iran filters many popular social networks and websites such as Facebook and Youtube. The Iranian regime has a special police taskforce called the Cyber Police. Just recently 4 Facebook users were arrested in the city of Zahedan.
