Free expression group ARTICLE 19 said China has spent more than a decade helping Iran build one of the world’s most restrictive internet control systems, supplying technology and a governance model used for censorship, surveillance and shutdowns.
The report released on Monday, titled “Tightening the Net: China’s Infrastructure of Oppression in Iran,” traces cooperation dating back to at least 2010 and says Chinese firms supplied or supported equipment and know-how used for internet filtering, deep packet inspection, centralized traffic management, and mass surveillance.
It named companies including ZTE, Huawei, Tiandy, and Hikvision, and describes how Iran built out a tightly controlled “National Information Network” designed to function as a domestic intranet while progressively limiting access to the open, global internet.
“In its pursuit of total control over the digital space, Iran borrows directly from the Chinese digital authoritarian playbook,” Michael Caster, head of ARTICLE 19’s China program, said in the report.
The organization said Tehran’s embrace of Beijing’s “cyber sovereignty” concept – the idea that governments should have near-total authority over online information flows within their borders – has helped normalize censorship and surveillance in international forums.
“Emulating China’s infrastructure of oppression helps Iran entrench power, sidestepping accountability and exercising full control over the information environment. That way, dissent is not just silenced, it is prevented from ever surfacing,” said Mo Hoseini, the head of the group’s Resilience department said.
ARTICLE 19 said the technology and institutional alignment have become more visible during major crackdowns, including the recent wave of protests that began late December.
The group said authorities responded with widespread violence and arrests, and then escalated to nationwide network interference on January 8, 2026, followed by broad disruption of internet, phone, and mobile networks by January 11, cutting off communications as security forces moved to suppress dissent.
The report said the latest blackout showed a level of centralized control that reached beyond social media and messaging, affecting essential services including banking, healthcare, and emergency response.
It added that Iran has repeatedly used shutdowns during earlier periods of unrest, including during the 2022 “Woman, Life, Freedom” protests and demonstrations in 2019-2020, but argued the 2026 disruption was broader and more aggressively enforced than previous episodes.
ARTICLE 19 said Iran also intensified efforts to restrict satellite connectivity. It said Starlink traffic was heavily disrupted during the crackdown and that the sophistication of the disruption suggested military-grade capabilities.
The report said authorities also seized satellite equipment door-to-door and imposed harsh penalties under a 2025 law criminalizing the possession of satellite internet terminals.
While the group said China’s direct role in the specific Starlink disruption was not confirmed, it argued that Chinese assistance has been central to the foundations of Iran’s internet control architecture, and that Beijing continues to provide a template for the state’s approach to “digital authoritarianism.”
The report describes Iran’s Supreme Council of Cyberspace – established in 2012 and chaired by Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei – as structurally similar to China’s Cyberspace Administration of China, with both bodies overseeing centralized filtering, restrictions on foreign platforms, and the expansion of state-approved domestic alternatives.
It said Iran’s National Information Network increasingly mirrors features associated with China’s “Great Firewall,” including embedded surveillance and mechanisms to compel service providers to share data or throttle traffic.
The organization said the spread of surveillance and censorship tools risks entrenching repression inside Iran while eroding broader norms of internet freedom.
It also called for stronger export controls and sanctions enforcement targeting suppliers of surveillance and filtering technologies, greater corporate transparency, and increased support for secure circumvention tools and resilient connectivity options for Iranians during shutdowns.
Security officials informed the families their presence at the February 11 pro-state march must be “verifiable,” including by taking photos and videos of themselves at the rally and sending the material to security bodies, informed sources said.
The officials, according to the sources, coupled the demand with threats and sustained psychological pressure, telling families that only if they comply might their detained relatives be released, spared execution, or see their sentences reduced.
The pressure coincided with a message delivered on Monday by Ali Khamenei, who in a short recorded video urged Iranians to demonstrate loyalty to the Islamic Republic and emphasized the need to stand firm against opponents of the system.
Pressure amid widening crackdown
The reported coercion comes as Iran International has previously documented an intensifying crackdown following nationwide protests, including mass arrests and a rise in reported deaths in custody. Observers have warned the pattern may point to a broader phase aimed at consolidating control and removing evidence linked to the violent suppression of dissent.
According to a statement by Iran International’s editorial board, at least 36,500 protesters have been killed during the unrest. Many viewers of the outlet have also reported widespread arrests, critical conditions for detainees, and, in numerous cases, families being left without information about the whereabouts or treatment of their relatives.
Statements attributed to detainees’ families
Separately, websites affiliated with the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps published a text on Monday attributed to Mohammad Ali Saeedi-Nia, an entrepreneur and founder of the Saeedi-Nia Real Estate and Industries Group, alleging that he would take part in the February 11 pro-state rally.
Sources told Iran International that the publication was part of the same pressure campaign and aimed at extracting forced declarations of loyalty from families of detainees, using pro-government media to signal compliance.
Sadegh Saeedi-Nia, the son of Mohammad Ali Saeedi-Nia and chief executive of the family business, was arrested following the protests and subsequent killings and remains in prison.
Meanwhile, reports indicate a new wave of government-ordered closures of cafés and restaurants in Tehran, accompanied by the suspension of their social media accounts. Officials have not announced the reasons for the closures, which follow similar actions in recent months and appear to have intensified after the mass killings of protesters in January.
Ali Karami, 26, who was shot and killed by Iran’s security forces on January 8, had one wish: “If I die before my dog,” he said, “let her see my lifeless body.”
He said it in a video posted to Instagram in October 2024, narrating as he played tug-of-war with his dog, Ariel—laughing, absorbed in an ordinary moment of life.
After his death, the video spread widely across Iranian social media, capturing the public imagination as viewers returned to his words with disbelief.
Karami believed dogs understand death, and that without seeing him, she might think he had simply abandoned her.
He may have contemplated the possibility of dying young, but not like this—not shot in the street, his private reflection transformed into a national elegy.
Karami was an auto repair mechanic and a devoted dog lover who rescued stray animals. Originally from Kermanshah Province, in the country’s Kurdish region, he later moved to Tehran for school and work.
His Instagram account, @alikaramiservis, offers a window into his daily life—his pride in his craft, his affection for dogs, and his love of nature and music, including the songs of Dariush Eghbali.
It is also a record of one of the tens of thousands of people who took to the streets demanding freedom and were met with bullets.
Karami was reportedly trying to protect an elderly woman when he was shot and killed.
In many of his photos, Ariel—the dog he referred to as his daughter—is never far from his side. They play ball, cook, or simply share quiet time at the repair shop: fragments of an unremarkable, joyful life.
“She understands death,” Karami says in the October video. “If she does not see my lifeless body, she will think I abandoned her and will keep waiting for me to come back.”
“That’s a friendship without limits,” he adds. “Pure loyalty.”
Karami’s final post, dated December 30, shows him proudly displaying his work: a car he had restored at Sehand Car Clinic in Tehran.
From February 8 onward, the account appears to have been run by family members or friends. That day, they posted a tribute video showing Karami dancing, exercising, and spending time with Ariel. They also reposted the October video—his voice now echoing with an unintended prophecy.
This time, there was an ending.
The final images show Ariel lying at Karami’s gravesite.
Just as he had asked.
In the most tragic way, a fate he once spoke of—unknowingly—was fulfilled.
