Launch of 'Cyber Basij' with the Cooperation of '18,000 People'

The Deputy Prosecutor General of the country for cyber affairs announced the 'voluntary cooperation' of about 18,000 individuals with the Prosecutor's Office to identify 'violations' in cyberspace. According to the official website of the Prosecutor General's Office on Wednesday (February 8), Abdolsamad Khorramabadi stated that these individuals are collaborating 'voluntarily' with the Prosecutor General's Office by establishing a 'Cyber Basij'. He mentioned that these monitors will report 'instances of violations by websites and social networks' to the Prosecutor General's Office. This official indicated that the reports from these individuals are 'one of the main sources for the working group determining the instances of criminal content to deal with violating websites'. The Deputy Prosecutor General did not provide details about this collaboration or the organizations and bodies involved in organizing these 18,000 individuals. Following the events of 2009, commanders of the Revolutionary Guards and the Basij Organization have repeatedly spoken about their intention to form virtual headquarters to counter what they call the 'soft war of the enemy'. In recent years, the Revolutionary Guards and the Basij Organization have established significant social networks, websites, and educational centers to train and encourage Basij and Hezbollah forces to operate in cyberspace. So far, there have been no reports of the active Basij forces collaborating with judicial and security institutions, but the Deputy Prosecutor General stated that monitoring 'violating' websites is carried out within the framework of the 'Cyber Basij'. The Iranian judiciary has filtered a large number of websites in recent years and summoned and arrested dozens of journalists and social media activists on various charges. In December of this year, Mohammad Jafar Montazeri, the Prosecutor General, stated that 13 to 14 thousand networks are filtered weekly due to 'committing crimes' in Iran. Montazeri added that 'unfortunately, this space has become a path for many foreign currents to strike at the regime.' On January 19 of this year, the Minister of Culture and Islamic Guidance announced the closure of over 160,000 'corruption channels' in cyberspace. Reza Salehi Amiri stated that '27 million young people exchange information on just one social network in the country', and the mentioned channels were closed to prevent the 'cultural bombardment' of the youth. The mobile social network 'Telegram' is one of the most widely used networks in Iran, and according to officials, millions of people in the country use it. Judicial and security officials have made numerous efforts to block 'Telegram' in recent years, but they have not succeeded due to government opposition. One of the eleventh government's plans to limit Iranian users' access to certain social networks is 'smart filtering', which some experts have questioned its effectiveness. The judiciary and the Revolutionary Guards have also arrested dozens of active users of these networks in recent years despite filtering some of them.