Iran hasn’t been shy about its bids to monitor, filter and block content on the Internet. Now it has taken the next leap, turning online censorship into an institution.
In the past week, the government has announced it has formed a high council dedicated to cleansing the country’s Internet of sites that threaten morality and national security, launching what amounts to a centralized command structure for online censorship.
The Supreme Council of Cyberspace, created by decree last week by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, includes heads of intelligence, militia, security and the powerful Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps, as well as media chiefs.
In an annual report released Monday, the group Reporters Without Borders ranked Iran the No. 1 enemy of the Internet in 2012.
“We have identified and confronted 650 websites that have been set up to battle our regime—39 of them are by opposition groups and our enemies, and the rest promote Western culture and worshiping Satan, and stoke sectarian divides.” Mr. Shahriari said the council would also “focus and facilitate positive aspects of the Internet, like business and trade.”
“We will fight back and continue posting our opinions but our resources are very limited compared to what the Revolutionary Guards can do,” said a female student activist in Iran.
