Iran Moves To Provide ‘Unrestricted Internet’ For ‘Digital Freelancers’
Amid internet shutdown to prevent spread of information about the ongoing protests, the Islamic Republic plans to provide high-speed internet to "accredited” digital businesses.
Amid internet shutdown to prevent spread of information about the ongoing protests, the Islamic Republic plans to provide high-speed internet to "accredited” digital businesses.
The frequent government shutdown of internet access has caused serious disruption for individuals and small businesses based on digital sales and marketing.
The new measure, dubbed “Regulations to support freelancers active in the country's digital economy," was ratified by the government’s digital economy taskforce on Saturday in 10 articles, which probably will lead to strict monitoring of online activities and ensuring that regime supporters have internet access.
The use of the term ‘freelancer’ might be misleading. The definition in the regulation points to individuals or companies that apply as active in digital economy and approved by the government.
Headed by Communications and Information Technology Minister Issa Zarepour, the taskforce was established last year to coordinate the government’s supervision on online activities among four ministries.
It defines a freelancer and its range of services, includes instruction on how to create a database of digital ‘freelancers’, sets criteria on their accreditation and how government institutions should interact with them, as well as some insurance and financial matters.
According to the new regulations, the computer trade union has been tasked to set up a database of ‘freelancers’ and their activities within three months.
In its article 8, the Ministry of Information and Communications Technology has been tasked with providing the necessary infrastructure for “high-speed and stable Internet with appropriate level of access for accredited people," without clarifying on the “appropriate access” or who are the “accredited people.”
In another article, the government claims that in order to supervise the “fairness and transparency” of the contracts between freelancers and employers, instructions have been issued for monitoring software platforms. According to the document, the regulations for accreditation into the database will be announced by the ministry upon collaboration among Ministry of Information and Communications Technology, the country's computer trade union organization; Ministry of Cooperatives, Labour, and Social Welfare; Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance; the presidential office of Science and Technology and Knowledge-Based Economy; and last but definitely not least the Intelligence Ministry.
Many Islamic Republic officials, such as member of the parliament Javad Hassanikia and former Information Minister Mohammad-Javad Azari Jahromi, have talked about providing internet access to university professors or journalists. The move can be a measure to justify replacing the country’s internet with an intranet for the general population who will be disconnected from the world wide web and controlled by the regime’s limited domestic access. Azari-Jahromi was one of the main supporters of the idea of stratifying Internet access inside the country. In an address to the parliament, he defended the idea saying it is not possible to provide the same type of internet to all jobs and ages in the country.
Like almost all measures by the Islamic Republic that sound innocent but pursue ulterior motives, the new move is titled “regulations to support freelancers” but is meant to suppress any critical voice and cajole those who want normal access to the internet to be on the regime’s side. It means that if you want to have access to the internet, the government should be able to monitor your work and make sure you do not engage in any activity or cooperate with anyone the regime deems hostile.
The story was first reported by movie director Vahid Vakilifar and Mohammad Reza Shafiei, a producer linked to the Islamic Republic’s inner circles, who criticized the filmmakers, saying that “the enemy's hybrid warfare” has clouded their understanding and judgement of the current developments.
According to these reports, filmmakers are shooting the same scenes both with hijab and without, leaving the impression that they think the Islamic Republic’s mandatory dress code may be relaxed in future.
Later on, people on social media said that not only the movies are being filmed both with and without hijab, some series for home streaming services are also being shot both ways.
An official with the Islamic Republic’s Cinema Organization, a body that works under the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance, denied the reports on November 23, and threatened if the news is true, the production of the films will be stopped at any stage. Bahman Habashi warned of “irreparable consequences for the creators.” He also called on investors, producers and directors to be careful about the consequences of any violation of the country's official laws on their reputation, credit and capital.
It is not yet clear who are the filmmakers who are purportedly making such movies or how they are funded or whether the movies are being produced for screening inside the country.
Kianoush Ayari’s movie "Couch," in which the actresses do not have headscarves, but instead wear wigs, is still banned, or another movie “The Killer and the Savage” by Hamid Nematollah, in which the main character is a woman with a shaved head has not given permission for screening.
Although producing movies or shows in two version seems costly and arduous, there are some very famous examples for it, such as The Message, a 1976 epic flick by Syrian-American Moustapha Akkad that chronicles the life of Islam’s Prophet Muhammad. Having consulted with Islamic clerics in a thorough attempt to be respectful towards Islam, Akkad simultaneously filmed two versions of the drama - one with an international cast in English and one an Arabic version with an Arab cast.
However, there are some people on social media who believe these rumors were created by regime insiders to justify the crackdown on filmmakers. This may be true because there are a few government-backed companies which want to control all film and TV series production and distribution. They have an interest in banning films or arresting independent filmmakers.
In recent weeks, a large number of actresses and female filmmakers as well as sports celebrities have posted photos of themselves without the Islamic Republic’s mandatory hijab as a show of solidarity with antigovernment protests, ignited by the death of 22-year-old woman Mahsa Amini in custody of the country’s hijab – or the so-called morality – police.
Such acts of defiance by actresses have become extremely troubling for the Islamic Republic’s state broadcaster that has to remove them from TV series and movies they had appeared in or stop airing the shows altogether.
The regime has also arrested several of the celebrities who have unveiled in public and has threatened many with bans on their works and leaving the country. However, such measures seem futile as the list of people who are getting banned are increasing day by day. Even if the production of movies with a veiled and unveiled cast is only a rumor, it shows that many people are imagining the country’s cinematic landscape free of the Islamic Republic.
In a letter issued on Friday, a group of about 140 ophthalmologists said that a large number of protesters have been taken to medical centers hit by rubber bullets and metal pellets as well as paintball bullets in their eyes, leading to the loss of eyesight in one or both eyes.
Last week, another group of 230 ophthalmologists issued a similar letter warning about the loss of eyesight among protesters.
The Islamic Republic, which had been previously condemned for blinding protesters in the streets and has intensified the use of guns, including military weapons against unarmed protesters.
In an article on November 19, The New York Times cited ophthalmologists of three hospitals in the capital Tehran – namely Farabi, Rasoul Akram and Labbafinezhad -- and several doctors in Kordestan province, as saying that about 580 protesters suffered serious eye injuries during the regime’s crackdown.
The full scope of mass eye injuries has been largely concealed due to the internet blackout, but medical evidence given to The Times by doctors, protesters, family members of patients and rights groups revealed that ophthalmology wards in hospitals have been overwhelmed with eye injury victims. The range of injuries included mutilated retinas, severed optic nerves and punctured irises.
The regime’s security forces have been extensively using cartridges of shotshell loaded with numerous small balls or birdshots, or medium-sized buckshots as well as single large solid projectiles known as a slug to quash the protests across the country.
In an investigative report published on Friday, FRANCE 24 found evidence that shotgun cartridges manufactured by French-Italian manufacturer Cheddite have been widely used against Iranian protesters, an apparent violation of EU sanctions that went into place in 2012.
The team analyzed more than 100 photos and videos showing teargas canisters, rifle bullets, paintball projectiles and cartridges from shotguns. While most of the shotgun shells photographed were made in Iran, 13 shells recovered from eight different Iranian cities bore Cheddite logos from factories in Italy and France. The company claims to be the world’s largest maker of empty shotgun cartridges and firing caps, producing more than a billion empty cartridges every year.
Nicholas Marsh, a senior researcher at the Peace Research Institute Oslo (PRIO), told FRANCE 24 about Iran that "The regulation currently in force states that it is not allowed to sell shotguns of any type, ammunition designed for them and associated components. The restriction on firearms was added in an amendment on 24 March 2012. Since then, shotguns and their ammunition have been covered by the EU sanctions, and the sanctions are still in effect." The agency also quoted Amnesty International's researcher on arms control and human rights, Patrick Wilcken, as saying that “Cheddite has a responsibility to respect human rights; it should carry out human rights due diligence on its entire value chain and should cease supplies if there is a risk of goods being diverted into hands of serial human rights violators…”