Are Iranian authorities more sophisticated than we think?

Posted By Evgeny Morozov Friday, July 10, 2009 - 5:52 PM Share

A scary anecdote from Iran. A trusted colleague - who is married to an Iranian-American and would thus prefer to stay anonymous - has told me of a very disturbing episode that happened to her friend, another Iranian-American, as she was flying to Iran last week. On passing through the immigration control at the airport in Tehran, she was asked by the officers if she has a Facebook account. When she said "no", the officers pulled up a laptop and searched for her name on Facebook. They found her account and noted down the names of her Facebook friends.

This is very disturbing. For once, it means that the Iranian authorities are paying very close attention to what's going on Facebook and Twitter (which, in my opinion, also explains why they decided not to take those web-sites down entirely - they are useful tools of intelligence gathering).

Second,  it means, as far as authorities are concerned, our online and offline identities are closely tied and we have to be fully prepared to be quizzed about any online trace that we have left (I can easily see us being asked our Facebook and Twitter handles in immigration forms; one of the forms I regularly fill flying back to the US has recently added a field for email address).

Third, this reveals that some of the spontaneous online activism we witnessed in the last few weeks - with Americans re-tweeting the posts published by those in Tehran -  may eventually have very dire consequences, as Iranians would need to explain how exactly they are connected to foreigners that follow them on Twitter (believe me, I've observed enough bureaucratic stupidity in Eastern Europe to know that even some of the officials who follow Twitter activity on a daily basis may not know how it works).

I am curious if there have been other reports of foreigners being asked about their social media activity on traveling to authoritarian states. Any ideas? 
 

MEHRI1335@YAHOO.COM

6:15 AM ET

July 11, 2009

Iranians are Iranians no matter which side they are

Dear sirs,

Reading your articles about Iran in recent months have given much insight in understanding how are we evaluated in international eyes as a nation and a country run by clergymen.

I am much pleased to see all are surprised by seeing a civilized dynamic nation who were kept under the veil of international media. where these people came from?

I call this the magic of Iranian women, wives and mothers

For 30 years Iranians have resisted quietly, parents specially mothers from all walks of life have brought up their children with Iranian values and not Islamic values. However hard the government tried to preach kids in schools, mothers untied, instead they invested on true education, most of them took the kids from this class to that to make up for the public schools shortcomings.

the result as you all witness today is a balanced well educated young generation who is NOT what the government wished for but what the Iranians wished for.

who are working in security forces? the same Iranians. Who are being very well paid. they are recruited in high schools and universities and spoiled by authorities. Are we afraid from them? NO. Why? They are our children who are brought up with Iranian values they might be walking on the wrong direction but we are sure it will not be for long..

If you are trying to inform us about what happening good or bad, please remember that we are not only reading the lines but also between the lines. Do not forget Iranians are artists when it comes to using words. write about them or for them remembering this.

We have survived the history we will no doubt survive a clergy government.

As Iranian saying goes " this will also pass..."

 

GTODON

2:11 PM ET

July 12, 2009

Interesting but . . .

Mr. Morozov presents interesting information regarding the Iranian authorities' interest in Facebook accounts and so on. I am surprised to learn, however, that Foreign Policy does not require that its writers know how to write. This piece is the work of a bureaucratic mind, not a writer.

 

Evgeny Morozov, originally from Belarus, is a visiting scholar at Stanford and a Schwartz Fellow at the New America Foundation.

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