🔶 Cutting off protestors’ SIM cards; disconnecting access to digital life

🔻Report from Avan Sarai

In Iran, punishment for critics sometimes begins before any official charges are announced: SIM cards are cut, social media pages are blocked, and banking and administrative services are taken out of reach; in some cases, restoring communications becomes contingent on deleting or changing content and on promises of silence.

Over the past four decades, the Islamic Republic has used a range of security and judicial tools to control opponents, critics, and civil and human-rights activists; from summonses, arrests, and the opening of judicial cases and imprisonment to travel bans, employment and social deprivation, pressure on families, and limiting media and civil activity.

In recent years, communication and digital restrictions have also been added to this set of measures—restrictions that sometimes go beyond filtering and blocking user accounts and directly affect citizens’ everyday communication tools and services.

Under the laws of the Islamic Republic, after a court has been held and a final conviction has been issued, deprivation of certain rights and facilities can be applied in the form of so-called supplementary punishments; what some recent reports by a number of citizens, journalists, and civil activists describe, however, takes another form: cutting off a SIM card without prior notice, and in some cases without the person being informed of the opening of a case, any official charge, or the issuance of a judicial ruling against them.

Published reports indicate that restoring a phone line has been conditioned on a commitment to stop critical activity or to delete content from social media.

In a report released in Avan 1403, the Iran Human Rights Campaign stated that Islamic Republic officials have increasingly used disabling journalists’ and activists’ SIM cards as a tool to apply pressure.

According to the organization, some people have been forced to sign a pledge in order to get their SIM card back.

In recent months as well, reports of similar actions have increased; several online activists have reported that their SIM cards and national identity cards have been blocked, that access to banking services has been disrupted, and in some cases that their social media pages have been shut down.

In connection with this, DW Farsi has interviewed three citizens living in Iran. (Alias names)

📌 Read the full text of the report on DW Farsi’s website.