Corona Censorship

It is well known that Iran has not been truthful about Corona. The Iranian government has lied to the world about the deaths of Iranian people. The Iranian state say that 40,000 Iranian have perished but other sources say that this is actually 150,000. This is more than Italy! Why does the government try to cover this up?

This is the latest example of the Iranian governments control and censorship over Iranian people. It also shows how far the Iranian state will go to protect itself from scrutiny. What has the government done to stop Corona. Why has it taken so long to begin lockdown. And is it too late?

It is more important than ever that Iranians have access to the Internet. Iranians are the only people who know what is really going on. Corona has come at a time where Iran continues to control internet access and service providers. Ever since the November 2019 protests Iranian government has stepped up its attempts to censor the Iranian people and hide them from the world.

Last year I blogged about how to avoid Iranian censorship by using Tor to overcome government barriers. This is now more relevant and necessary because of Corona. Maybe in ten years we will know the truth about Corona. Until then the people must continue to document the truth.

The truth always comes out

Censorship comes in many forms and most recently that includes at the barrel of a gun. I speak of course of the murder in Istanbul of Masoud Molavi on 14 November. Molavi was a complicated person and realised the last two years the work he did in the name of Irans national security was not in service of the Iranian people. He fled to Turkey and founded Black Box on Twitter and Telegram to highlight the illegal activity of the Iranian government. He spoke the truth for the Iranian people and paid the highest price for that.

There is little doubt to me that members of the Iranian State were behind this. Molavi's exposure of malicious cyber activity by the Iranian government was too much but what they still do not understand is that every person killed, or tortured, or imprisoned, just inspires other ordinary Iranians to seek the truth.

Black Box was a brave piece of work, and those who were a part of it will find new places to share truth and knowledge of Iran's oppressive cyber activities.