There’s a new anti-censorship app now available to Internet users in Iran. It’s called Toosheh and it also gives users much better speeds than they can usually expect in the country. The new technology behind the app makes it the ideal choice for Iranian netizens to access blocked content. It’s free and uses satellites to deliver content, completely bypassing the monitored Iranian Internet networks.
Toosheh
A group of professionals in California got together to form a company dedicated to finding a solution to the horrible Internet access problem in Iran. Many web sites are blocked by the government in Iran, and Internet access itself is difficult. Most people cannot afford Internet connections, and those who can suffer very slow speeds. The group, whose roots are in Iran, have developed an app that can overcome these obstacles.
To use Toosheh, users need a computer, a flash drive, and access to a satellite receiver. The latter might be a problem for some because this equipment is also banned in Iran, but studies have shown that about three-quarters of Iranian users are able to access them. The YahSat satellite receiver connects Toosheh app users with the Toosheh channel. This receiver is run by the Al Yah Satellite Communications Company, a private joint stock company under the government-owned Mubadala company in Abu Dhabi, UAE. Once that connection has been established, users can download content from the satellite onto their flash drives.
The content that has been made available currently amounts to about a gigabyte of data. This content is composed of videos, images and text from Persian-language news sites that are not accessible through the usual means. This content, made available for free, would normally cost Iranians the price of a couple of Cokes. A decent Internet connection in Iran costs about a sixth of the average wages there, or three times the cost of basic utilities. Soon, Toosheh hopes to be able to provide users with more banned content, namely books, as they partner with Iranian publishers who are based in other countries.
Censorship in Iran
Iranians suffer under one of the harsher censorship regimes in the world. Because of poor access to the Internet, they are already denied access to a lot of content, even if it is not declared illegal by the government. Then on top of this, many news web sites and entertainment platforms are blocked by the strict regime. All content that passes through Iranian Internet space must go through a rigid evaluation process before it can be approved by the government and allowed to be viewed. Both foreign and local web sites are harshly censored, and no one can tell for how long these sites will remain unavailable. Most recently, due to the elections in Iran at the end of February, even a promotional web site for centrist and reformist candidates was blocked. The site, called the List of Hope, was blocked about a week before the February 26 elections even though former President Mohammad Khatami and current President Hassan Rouhani both supported it.
Iran’s political regime looks at the West as the enemy. Many statements made regarding content from western countries are harsh and communicate the idea that western culture is a kind of poison. The abundance of western content flowing through the Internet is seen as an attack on Iranian homes that must be stopped. The Iranian Presidential Cultural Council head Reza Akrami says that about 70% of the people in Iran are attracted to satellite channels that offer this content, implying that it is the cause of failing values and unrest in the country. Government censors currently employ signal jamming techniques to disrupt satellite and other communications, but YahSat broadcasts are not affected by this. In addition, to be safe, Toosheh content is on an hourly loop so that users will not be stumped by any temporary disruptions.
