Mahsa Alimardani

12 October 2020

Authors: Mahsa Alimardani, Mona Elswah

As two scholars who’ve spent a lot of time studying and within the MENA region, we’re proud to know Emna Mizouni. She’s long been ...
Read More Black Heroes of the Internet – Emna Mizouni

5 August 2020

Authors: Mona Elswah, Mahsa Alimardani

Oxford doctoral candidates Mahsa Alimardani and Mona Elswah present the case for how the new phenomenon of ‘religious misinformation’ is adding to the Covid-19 ...
Read More How the rise of Religious Misinformation is contributing to the Covid-19 infodemic

24 June 2020

Authors: Mahsa Alimardani, Mona Elswah

We are delighted to have contributed with a new chapter to Meedan’s 2020 Misinfodemic Report: COVID-19 in Emerging Economies. The chapter focuses on misinformation ...
Read More Understanding Online Misinformation in Iran, the Epicentre of Coronavirus in the Middle East

17 June 2021 BBC News

Iranians will choose a new president on Friday, after three years of economic hardship under reimposed US sanctions and two government crackdowns on nationwide protests.

29 April 2021 Wall Street Journal

While China and other countries fence off foreign social-media sites, Tehran tries to use them to its advantage

2 February 2021 The Washington Post

On an average day, Twitter accounts linked to Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran's supreme leader, share his official statements and commentary with hundreds of thousands of followers on the U.S. social network.

26 January 2021 Al Jazeera

Tehran, Iran – Iran’s government has moved to block Signal after Iranians flocked to the messaging platform following privacy concerns from Facebook-owned WhatsApp.

18 November 2020 Wired

A deepfake bot has been generating explicit, non-consensual images on the platform. The researchers who found it say their warnings have been ignored.

20 July 2020 The Wall Street Journal

Tehran bowed to intense pressure on the nation’s social media to spare participants in November demonstrations.

28 June 2020 The Washington Post

Telegram founder Pavel Durov used cyber-dodging tactics and the messaging app’s reach to outmanoeuvre Russia’s state telecommunications regulator.

23 June 2020 Deutsche Welle

Iranian authorities are reportedly mulling a ban on Instagram, a popular social media platform in the Islamic country. DW analyzes why the hardline Shiite regime continues to feel threatened by the power of the internet.

17 April 2020 BNN Bloomberg

Last month, Bob Diachenko came across an unsecured server storing information on 42 million messaging accounts.

3 January 2020 Washington Post

Iran’s cyber troops long have been among the world’s most capable and aggressive, disrupting banking, hacking oil companies, even trying to take control of a dam from afar, while typically stopping short of the most crippling possible actions, say experts

14 December 2019 Al Jazeera

From Kashmir to Iran, governments are turning off the internet to stop dissent. Plus, the murky world of deepfakes.

13 December 2019 The Telegraph

Pouya Bakhtiari could barely contain his excitement as he sat in gridlocked traffic on the motorway between Tehran and his home city of Karaj.

21 November 2019 Associated Press

Internet connectivity is trickling back in Iran after the government shut down access to the rest of the world for more than four days in response to unrest apparently triggered by a gasoline price hike.

19 November 2019 New York Times

The almost complete shutdown imposed over the weekend sets a new oppressive benchmark.

18 October 2019 Sky News

The arrest of a high-profile dissident and the seizure of his anti-government Telegram channel is a 'PR coup' for the regime.

12 June 2019 The Independent

Iran is to launch a text-messaging service to allow self-appointed guardians of morality in Tehran to turn in their neighbours or strangers for violating murky codes of public conduct, officials have said.

12 June 2019 What Bitcoin did

Latest panel debate from the OFF discussing the effects of the currency crisis on the Iranian internet and the effects of cryptocurrencies like bitcoin on internet access and use.

11 June 2019 Newsweek

Iran’s government is urging its citizens to use text messages to report on their neighbours or on strangers if they believe they are guilty of violating the country’s code of conduct.

20 December 2018 Motherboard

An Iranian academic says Slack banned him from the communication platform due to US sanctions. But the academic does not live in Iran; he’s in Canada.

9 November 2018 The Guardian

Jordan Erica Webber chats to the Iranian internet researcher Mahsa Alimardani about what we should be doing to rebuild trust in the internet.

11 May 2018 CBC

Data collected by watchdog Open Observatory of Network Interference is helping hold governments to account.

18 April 2018 The Verge

Khamenei made the announcement on his Telegram channel

14 January 2018 BBC Click

Iran internet crackdown; commentary by Mahsa Alimardani.

10 January 2018 Newsweek

Iranian authorities shut down social media channels and disrupted internet access as protests against the government spread across the country over the past two weeks.

9 January 2018 Vice

Iranians hit the streets again today — on the sixth day of volatile protests that have quickly spread across the country.

9 January 2018 Vice Motherboard

Psiphon, a Toronto-born app, has seen a 1,650% increase in downloads.

8 January 2018 Wikitribune

Iran blocked the popular messaging app Telegram, which many Iranians use to communicate, during ongoing nationwide protests.

4 January 2018 CBC

Telegram is the platform of choice but protesters turn to backdoor software and private networks

3 January 2018 CBC: The Current

Images of the unrest in Iran have spread across the world in recent days, but what does it feel like to actually be there, in the chaos and violence on the streets?

2 January 2018 CBC: The National

Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei says Iran's enemies are to blame for the violence that has taken over the country.

2 January 2018 Channel 4

Across Iran, thousands of people have been on the streets of major cities again today.

1 January 2018 Vice Motherboard

Reports say mobile services like Telegram have been shut down as protests continue across the country.

1 January 2018 Politico Magazine

Never in history has a protest movement depended so much on one technological platform. Will the company use its power wisely?

27 December 2017 media.ccc.de

The Situation of Censorship and Surveillance in Iran, and What Should Be Done