Research Of How The Government In Iran Is Silencing Its People

Introduction

The Islamic Republic of Iran is currently on the brisk of a major crisis that is both being adapted from the previous regime, and further developing under the current structure of governmental rule. The implementation of a filtering and blocking regime in regard to social media and the internet, to counteract the publics freedom to speech and outbursts of disrupt over corruption in the country, has been faced with a largely unpopular backlash from many a member of the ever evolving technologically aware society.

This movement has proved to have originally emerged prior to the presidential elections of 2009 and only gained in popularity as the unrests over the alleged biased corruption of the elections, led to the appointment of a candidate who many social activists believed should have never even been in contention. The unfolding of the allegations behind this general election against the government by the people of Iran, led to many citizens of the country taking to the internet and social media to voice displeasure. The blocking and filtering of social media leads to the question of, whether the Iranian government who claims itself to be a democratic body has the right to is silencing its people through the ongoing filtering and blocking of social media and internet related subjects? In fact, the Iranian government, in an attempt to silence society’s outlook took action and began what is famously known as the ‘Green Movement’, which emerged as a consequence of the appointment of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, and sparked the filtering out of selective information and websites voicing the opinion of people. The government did not want the outside world, in particular ‘the west’, to take notice of political disrupt within the country. The filtering and blocking of social media outlets and websites by the Iranian government is silencing the Iranian publics right to freedom of speech, and is in many ways an act of perjury against democratic principles and values of the regime? Or is a basic human right that many technologically developed countries enjoy? The moralities of the citizens of Iran.

Literature Review

“Liberation or Suppression Technologies?” written in regard to “The Internet, the Green Movement and the Regime in Iran” is based on the events during and leading up to the Iranian presidential elections of 2009. It discusses how technology played a role in terms of political dominance, thus becoming a key source discussing the filtering and blocking regime of the internet and social media websites. The text highlights Iran’s so called, “Green Movement” and expresses it as a form of internet revolution justly called, “The Twitter Revolution”. The text outlines the fact that protesters in Iran have begun to flock to the internet to voice their opinions and mobilize popular support for particular political regimes. The regime of 2005 and the events leading up to the presidential elections as seen in Babak Rahimi and Elham Gheytanchi’s, “Iran’s Reformists and Activists: Internet Exploiters” were mainly fuelled by the passion of the people in letting their fellow citizens know who they were voting for and exactly why or why not they were/were not voting for that candidate. This led to many websites being blocked or temporarily shut down due to the Iranian governments hold over the cyberspace in the country. The Iranian people, as highlighted by Reardon (2012) used the internet to expand their political control and suppress political dissents as well as voice their opinion without the fear of being threatened. The Iranian experience leads this particular text to question whether or not the internet is an emancipating technology in the public’s hands. The internet played a role in ensuring that political activists could raise consent and alert people to the wrong doings of the potential candidates for presidency.

Melissa Y. Lerner (2010) shows that Iranian political activists are being aided in their efforts by the Internet. The text highlights the fact that the internet enabled the regime to increase its political control by making it easier for political activists to access millions of people across the country in a fast and reliable manner, ensuring that their voices would be heard, thus increasing their political control and swinging votes in their favor. This, on the downside also led to these governmental parties suppressing opponents and easily identifying and instilling a sense of fear among the Iranian people, as well as expanding the military and parliamentary bodies control over the people through the Internet. Daniel Baldino and Jarrad Goold in “Iran and the emergence of information and communications technology: the evolution of revolution?” discuss the idea behind the rise of the technologically advanced generation of internet users in Iran. In recent times the Iranian public has taken a strong stance against the movements of the government in terms of political power. The benefits and limitations of the rise in people using the internet is outlined and discussed with a focus on the way in which this has affected the demographic of political change in terms of protesting in Iran. The number of people that have used social media services such as Facebook and Twitter has increased leading to the Iranian Government taking action against this by suppressing online activism.

The aim of this paper is to discuss the power of social media in Iran and how it has risen in significance in recent years and the fact that this has been made evident in the way in which people flock to internet social media websites, and blogs to voice their discontent against certain political movements. There is a scarcity of information currently on the filtering and blocking of social media outlets and websites by the Iranian government and how it is silencing the Iranian publics right to freedom of speech, and is in many ways an act of perjury against the moralities of the citizens of Iran.

“Iranian Devolution” by Ilan Berman states that Iran is currently among the most “wired” nations in the Middle East, with internet penetration estimated at nearly 56 percent of the population. The study recognizes that these social media websites are the catalysts behind the government blocking regime and have continued to develop since the post presidential election protests of 2009. Actually what is the Iranian government exactly blocking? Facebook, twitter please explainThe need for this research paper as per the current status of research into the topic of blocking and filtering in regard to the internet and social media is proven to be necessary. The rationale for cyber optimism should not be over exaggerated as they appear to a certain degree to be paradoxical. The characteristics, adoption and impact of four social media outlets and their impact on Iran as a country are outlined by Baldino as major factors towards why the government is blocking websites on the internet. Nonetheless, all four social media tools are and continue to be used extensively, specifically by the younger generation and have remained a fashionable platform by which large numbers of political activists choose to express solidarity. Then what is blocked? And how is the regime filtering websites or info over the Internet? The aim of this paper is to present a satisfactory and effectual answer to my research question: How is the Iranian government silencing its people through the ongoing filtering and blocking of social media and internet related subjects. In this paper, I will discuss the implications of the green movement in Iran and its cyber effects

The rise of the technologically advanced generation of internet users in Iran plays a significant part in the governments role in terms of privacy and foreign affairs[RR13]. In recent times the Iranian public have taken a strong stance against the movements of the government in terms of political power. The benefits and limitations of the rise in people using the internet is a major point behind why the government has chosen to block out certain social media platforms and also forms the basis behind the filtering out of websites. There is a strong focus on the way in which this has affected the demographic of political change in terms of protesting in Iran. With this it can be seen that the number of people that have used social media services such as Facebook and Twitter has increased leading to the Iranian Government taking action against this by suppressing online activism. The filtering and blocking of social media outlets and websites by the Iranian government is silencing the Iranian public’s right to freedom of speech, and is in many ways an act of perjury against the moralities of the citizens of Iran.

The power of social media in Iran has gained in significance in recent years and this has been made evident in the way in which the people flock to internet social media websites, and blogs to voice their discontent against certain political movements. The discussion here is based on the characteristics, adoption and impact of four social media outlets and their impact on Iran as a country. There is a strong recognition that these social media websites are the catalysts behind the government blocking regime and have continued to develop since the post presidential election protests of 2009. Nonetheless, all four social media tools are and continue to be used extensively specifically by the younger ‘net’ generation and have remained a fashionable platform by which large numbers of political activists choose to express solidarity. The Iranian presidential elections of 2009, in regards to technology and the role it played in terms of political dominance are highly influential when it comes to discussing the governments rights to block social media platforms.

The text, “Liberation or Suppression Technologies? The Internet, the Green Movement and the Regime in Iran” highlights Iran’s so called, “Green Movement” and expresses it as a form of internet revolution justly called the, “Twitter Revolution”. The text outlines the fact that protesters in Iran have begun to flock to the internet to voice their opinions and mobilize popular support for particular political regimes. The regime of 2009 and the events leading up to the presidential elections were mainly fueled by the passion of the people in letting their fellow citizens know who they were voting for and exactly why or why not they were/were not voting for that candidate. This led to many websites being blocked or temporarily shut down due to the Iranian governments hold over the cyberspace in the country. The Iranian people, as highlighted further on in the text, used the internet to expand their political control and suppress political dissents as well as voice their opinion without the fear of being threatened. The Iranian experience leads Saeid Golkar to question whether or not the internet is an emancipating technology in the publics hands. He then goes onto discuss how the internet played a role in ensuring that political activists could raise consent and alert people to the wrong doings of the potential candidates for presidency. While the internet has helped Iranian political activists, it has also enabled the regime to increase its political control by making it easier for them to access millions of people across the country in a fast and reliable manner, ensuring that their voices would be heard, thus increasing their political control and swinging votes in their favor. This on the downside also led to these governmental parties suppressing opponents and easily identifying and instilling a sense of fear among the Iranian people, as well as expanding the military and parliamentary bodies control over the people through the Internet.

Conclusion

In conclusion, it can be seen that the power of social media in Iran has gained in significance in recent years and this has been made evident in the way in which the people flock to the internet and social media websites. The Iranian public has taken a strong stance against the movements of the government in terms of political power, with the Iranian presidential elections of 2009, in regards to technology and the role it played in terms of political dominance playing a highly influential role when it comes to discussing the governments rights to block social media platforms. However, the fact that many Iranian citizens have chosen to voice their discontent over the internet and post negative comments onto various social media platforms has led the government to take action in an attempt to prevent the widespread use of the internet, via the filtering and blocking regime. The thesis statement behind the filtering and blocking of social media outlets and websites by the Iranian government and how it is silencing the Iranian publics right to freedom of speech, has been proven to be correct.

Reference

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