Analysis Archive:
Research & Reports

By linking hijab reports to vehicle records, phone services and business permits, the Islamic Republic pressures families and service providers to police women’s choices. European cameras and software helped build part of the infrastructure behind that enforcement.

False reports of deaths and an internet shutdown in France have given Islamic Republic officials a convenient comparison for defending repression at home. Cyberattacks against other countries add another dimension: the use of digital pressure to threaten them and project strength.

The Islamic Republic can damage data centers in the Gulf. Destroying the global infrastructure of major technology companies is another matter. Acting on these threats could bring Iran’s neighbors closer to the United States and Israel rather than push American influence out of the region.

Iran’s top cyberspace official claims authorities can disconnect Starlink terminals. Public evidence shows disruption to some connections, but does not establish the ability to impose a sustained nationwide shutdown.

A dispute between the government, parliament and the Supreme Council of Cyberspace exposes the fragmented authority behind Iran’s internet governance—and gives new meaning to Ali Khamenei’s complaint that cyberspace is “truly left unchecked.”

Requirements to register the identities of online advertisers, alongside Divar’s links between user accounts and identity and financial records, make digital activity easier to attribute to individuals. Combined with access to data and pressure on businesses, these connections can become instruments of control.

Parliament has tasked the Interior Ministry with building a registry of foreign activities and partnerships. The system will give security agencies access to records of academic, media, and professional relationships and make some activities subject to approval.

Goorkan collects information on people who oppose the Islamic Republic and publishes dossiers about them, while threatening them with “punishment.” At the same time, the website’s address appeared on a digital sign along Los Angeles’s Interstate 405. It remains unclear who posted the message or how they accessed the sign’s system.

A new Iran-Russia agreement suggests the normalization of Internet fragmentation and state sovereignty in cyberspace through international institutions.

A new warning from the UK, the US, and the Netherlands details, one that begins by gaining a target’s trust and can end with stolen communications, audio surveillance, and the publication of personal information for further harassment.

Alaj is recruiting people to report Iranian Instagram users living abroad. Its promise—“You identify them. We take action”—raises urgent questions about who receives that information and what happens next.

Iran’s proposed “anti-infiltration” law would place ordinary contact with foreign universities, media outlets, civil-society groups and professional organisations under security scrutiny—even though Iran’s own Constitution says lawful freedoms cannot be taken away in the name of protecting national independence.