Certain countries are real enemies of the internet. They completely block global access for their citizens or filter content in a variety of ways dependent on the country’s particular policies. Iran is one such country, holding one of the most strict approaches to internet control. In fact, the country’s oppressive regime tries to dissuade users from typical internet use and arrests loose-tongued bloggers.
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Content is often blocked, and the country even has its own network (intranet), a fact that has accounted for the Freedom of the Net report from Freedom House  to rate Iran as “not free” since 2009.
Although VPNs are forbidden in Iran – making it one of the countries where VPN providers rarely hold VPN servers in – it is still possible to find the Iranian flag on a few VPN companies’ maps.
An Iranian IP address is difficult to obtain since there aren’t many servers offered by VPN providers in the country. Additionally, services such as Netflix and Spotify have their own share of struggles within the territory, as they come with a couple of frustrating limitations for Iranian users. In addition, Iran has its own domestic versions of the world’s most major streaming services: Aparat is Iran’s YouTube, Filimo is Netflix while CafeBazaar and Sibche are the local versions of Google Play and the App Store.
However, Iranian blocks can change over time, and not always only on foreign content either; some of these Iranian streaming apps – in particular Aparat, Filimo and Aparat Kids – have also been removed from their respective online stores. Fortunately conditions of internet access have been improving, granting more than half of the country’s population a connection – although the government still tries to limit the access by censoring content and regulating prices.
Online privacy in Iran is therefore one of the highest, as well as being subject to a huge amount of limitations courtesy of the country’s own intranet that requires the use of an Iranian email client. Censorship has been a big problem with the country for years, and Iran is in fact looking to expand its online technical filtering system, which is already one of the heaviest in the world. ISPs are known to filter and control all kinds of content that might be related to: criticism of the government, religion, women rights and political websites, not to mention the usual targets of adult content and more. Bloggers are often arrested and popular social media sites – Twitter, Facebook and YouTube – are often blocked. YouTube in particular was once unavailable for about three years, between 2006 and 2009, before protests during 2009’s election managed to remove these blocks indefinitely.
While worldwide streaming services like Netflix and Spotify are also present in Iran, they are – Netflix in particular – very limited in terms of their library size, and we also have to count with the everlasting presence of censorship that restricts content availability also. In addition to all this, we must not forget that Iran has its own home made alternatives for the majority of these services, which makes it harder for foreign companies to set up shop in Iran. More than this even, Netflix does not have dubbed or subtitled series or movies, something that its internal rival Filimo offers for many Iranian movies, while also providing dubbed titles – making its content more suitable and likely to be chosen for the majority of the population.
Copyright laws are not taken very seriously, either. It is common to find pirated DVDs in local markets for as little as $1, even the most recent and well-received titles. This even includes geo-blocked content, such as Hulu or BBC iPlayer.
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