The expansion of social networks and the development of communication have weakened the Iran regime’s censorship apparatus. Even while the regime has recruited many of its supporters to fight against global awareness reaching the people and expanding the regime’s censorship.
Until now evidence has shown that the regime is the main loser in this war despite its huge investments in information censorship such that even its supreme leader Ali Khamenei has warned that cyberspace has become “unbridled.”
He even once said that if he would not have been the regime’s supreme leader, he would have taken control of the country’s cyberspace.
Khamenei’s and the regime’s main concern about cyberspace is the expansion of activities that target the establishment, particularly in the past few years.
And the youths of Iran while becoming aware of other solutions for a prosperous life and the knowledge to run a democratic government, are echoing the voice of change which is propagated by the regime’s main opposition the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (MEK/PMOI).
Therefore, it is not without reason that the regime’s officials close to the leadership constantly repeat Khamenei’s warnings about cyberspace.
They urge institutions tasked with censorship to act before it is too late. Because according to Morteza Agha Tehrani the Chairman of the regime’s Parliamentary Cultural Commission, quoted by the state-run daily Entekhab on February 10, 2022, as saying, “The enemy holds the key to cyberspace,” warning that “this enemy can hold the management of the country’s cyberspace in its hands and create problems for the nation whenever it wants.”
On February 11, the Friday prayer of Mashhad, Iran’s second-largest city, Ahmad Alamolhoda, displayed his fear about the enmity against the regime in cyberspace and said that the enemy had made cyberspace its field and “it is attacking us with all its might.”
Then addressing Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf, the regime’s parliament speaker, who was participating in the Friday prayers ceremony of Mashhad, he said:
“As the Commander-in-Chief of the Soft War Defense, you should approve the law on cyberspace regulation in the parliament as soon as possible.”
And the same day, Seyed Ahmad Mehdinejad the Friday prayer leader of Semnan expressed his concern: “In this virtual and non-virtual space, (the enemies try) to separate the youth from the revolution and the Islamic system.”
Isfahan’s Friday prayer leader Ahmad Salek cautioned parents, “to be aware that in cyberspace sworn enemies are active and that it tries to “show a dark image of the country.” In cyberspace, the enemy has been successful,” he added.
Similarly, parliament deputy Reza Taghavi lamented about this situation, when quoted by the state-run news agency IRNA on February 11: “The enemy has chosen the polluted cyberspace as a stage to assault the thoughts and ideas of the (system) and has attacked all the honors of this nation in this space.”
Such expressions of concern demonstrate how paranoid the regime officials are. As Alamolhoda said, “The enemy has control over 85 percent of cyberspace from outside and seeks to create a wedge between the people and the system.”
