Apple and Google are letting Iran's cyber surveillance go unchecked

For years, the Iranian regime has been struggling to rein-in access to Internet services because it knows full-well providing unharnessed access to the Internet will defeat its censorship machine. The mullahs ruling Iran had a first-hand experience of what the Internet can do in 2009, when images and videos of the regime’s brutality toward peaceful protesters were broadcast worldwide on social media networks.

And with the advent of secure, encrypted messaging applications, keeping tabs on and monitoring Internet traffic has become even harder for the state.

A new report by the Iranian opposition coalition National Council of Resistance of Iran sheds light on the Iranian regime’s yearslong campaign to adapt its surveillance and censorship apparatus to the ubiquity of Internet connectivity.

Titled “Iran: Cyber Repression: How the IRGC Uses Cyberwarfare to Preserve the Theocracy,” the report unveils the regime’s covert and overt tactics to spy on citizens and spread propaganda across social media channels.

http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/apple-and-google-are-letting-irans-cyber-surveillance-go-unchecked/article/2650204