Freedom House: The Islamic Republic is the Third Most Internet-Repressive Government in the World

In a recent report, "Freedom House" identified the Islamic Republic as the "third most repressive government for internet freedom in the world." According to this report, Iranian officials criminalized any content supporting protests, boycotting elections, or criticizing government-selected candidates ahead of the voting to determine a successor to Ebrahim Raisi this summer. "Freedom House" emphasized that despite the arbitrary disqualification of a large number of candidates, the Iranian government aimed to increase participation and legitimize the voting process for Raisi's successor. The Washington-based organization reported that as part of the ongoing internet repression in Iran, judicial authorities warned candidates and their supporters against using foreign social media platforms, even though almost all foreign social media networks are blocked in Iran. In another section of the report, "Freedom House" referred to the failed efforts of Iranian government-affiliated agents who attempted to distort political and social issues using artificial intelligence. The report suggests that AI-assisted content production has not significantly increased the effectiveness of electoral interference operations and has had minimal impact on the outcomes of fake news campaigns. "Freedom House" explained that the American organization "OpenAI," active in AI research, reported in the spring of this year that attempts by agents linked to China, Iran, Israel, and Russia to use "ChatGPT" for electoral influence were thwarted. "ChatGPT" is an AI-based chatbot capable of understanding complex technical and scientific discussions and can even code and create tools for the audience. In a previous report published last March, "Freedom House" identified the Iranian government as one of the violators of freedom in the past year and stated that Iran continues to be classified as a "not free" country in terms of freedom indices. In that report, titled "Freedom in the World 2024: The Escalating Adverse Effects of Questionable Elections and Armed Conflicts," Iran was described as a country with an "autocratic regime" that, in 2023, continued to "intensify" repression and employ government agents in the "brutal suppression" of anti-government protests, similar to Russia's evasion of sanctions. According to this report, in 2023, 77% of the total 13 Middle Eastern countries were classified as "not free." Mehdi Sarami Far stated that the Islamic Republic has been able to implement repression and control through a class-based internet and a national information network. The use of the "Monitor" application by the Islamic Republic to track ambulances and identify protesters, and the police's order to visually monitor businesses; is this in line with "repression"? Reactions to the "populism" of the representative claiming "lifting censorship": strengthening the powers of the Supreme National Security Council of the Islamic Republic.