Return to the Iranian Firewall
by Craig LabovitzIt has been 40 days since the start of protests in Iran.
And a lot has changed since my last blog post on the Iranian national firewall. Hundreds of Iranians are imprisoned or dead. And where the Iranian government firewall may have failed, oppression and fear have succeeded (at least for now). The infectious global anticipation of an Iranian velvet revolution is gone. Mass trials of reformists begin this week.
And the great Iranian firewall? Still in place and perhaps now operating with renewed efficiency.
The below graph shows Internet traffic into and out of Iran from June 7 to July 23. The graph includes expected peaks and valleys corresponding to diurnal and weekly traffic patterns (i.e. Internet usage declines at night and over the Iranian weekend). We include a ten day moving average line in red to better highlight the trends.
Before the June 12th disputed elections, Iranian traffic peaked at around 5 Gbps. On the afternoon of June 13, the Iranian government cut all Internet access for an hour and then slowly re-admitted traffic with now severe filter rules (and presumably) monitoring in place. Traffic levels remained reduced by 30% or more for several weeks. Beginning last week, traffic levels returned to their pre-election peaks of 5 Gbps.
Traffic changes over the last several days suggest the return of more severe filtering as the government consolidates its physical and virtual control over its citizens in preparation for the trials and the end of the traditional 40th days of morning over Neda (now a symbol and rallying cry for the reform movement).
In this case, the Internet never had major consumer penetration in Iran. Few homes have as much as dial-up access. Most Iranians don’t tweet.
So it may be years before democratic reform and the Iranian government allows widespread uncensored Internet access.
Interesting. I wonder how much Internet traffic is going into and out of China everyday. Do you have a rough figure?