Elections 2022: 45 Internet and human rights organizations call for ensuring people's access to the Internet
45 organizations and civil society organizations defending Iranian and international internet rights and freedoms have written an open letter to the Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic and the President of Iran, calling for respect for citizens' right to access the internet during the 2021 presidential elections.
This letter has also been sent to the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology, the Supreme National Security Council, the Working Group on Determining Criminal Content, the Revolutionary Guards, the Ministry of Intelligence, and a number of other institutions of the Islamic Republic.
The letter requests that Ali Khamenei and Hassan Rouhani ensure that during the elections (before, during, and after they are held), citizens will have access to the internet, various messengers and social networks, and other communication channels.
The letter states: "In a society like Iran, where public spaces are strictly controlled by the government and the possibility of holding a gathering faces government discrimination, the internet, messaging apps, and social networks play an important role in the free expression of opinions and protests, including during elections."
The authors of this letter wrote that providing the opportunity to communicate, debate, obtain information, and become familiar with the opinions of electoral candidates, along with reporting violations of individual rights and freedoms, are among the facilities that virtual communications provide to Iranian citizens.
This request comes as a number of journalists and activists inside Iran have announced in recent weeks that security officials have contacted them and warned them that criticism of Ebrahim Raisi, the main candidate of the Islamic Republic in the elections, will not be tolerated.
The letter refers to the history of internet shutdowns in Iran and the blocking of social networks and messaging apps, including during the November 2019 protests, and during the most recent unrest in Sistan-Baluchestan province, as well as the filtering of the Signal and Clubhouse messaging apps in Iran.
Other specific requests in the letter to the Islamic Republic's authorities include: stopping the blocking of social networks, messengers, and various websites; stopping preventing citizens from using VPNs to access these networks; providing quality and secure access to all citizens during the elections; and ordering all internet companies to inform the public about any potential disruptions.
This letter was signed by organizations such as the Abdolrahman Boroumand Foundation, the Siamak Pourzand Foundation, Article 19, the Center for Human Rights in Iran, Human Rights Watch, Human Rights Activists in Iran, and Unity for Iran.
The Iranian government has routinely shut down the internet during protests in recent years, which in some events, such as the November 2019 protests, resulted in internet outages lasting several days.
During the November 2019 protests, the internet was also cut off in Sistan and Baluchestan, and according to these human rights organizations, "at that time, given the ongoing protests in Sistan and Baluchestan, this province was one of the last areas to have the internet restored."
In early March 2020, Amnesty International, along with three human rights groups, Article 19, Access Now, and the Mian Group, issued a joint statement, referring to the protests in Saravan and the "almost complete shutdown of the internet in Sistan and Baluchestan province," and wrote that this action was being taken to "conceal the commission of serious human rights violations and international crimes such as extrajudicial killings."
Source: Radio Farda
