Info:
The CDICC, which falls under the Ministry of Justice of Iran, replaced a previous oversight committee after the adoption of the Cyber Crimes Law of 2009. With the creation of the CDICC, the filtering process in Iran has become more systematic and uniform. The Iranian authorities apply filtering on information they deem against the regime’s national beliefs and safety, and the filtering usually occurs without warning.
Abdolsamad Khorramabadi, the head of the CDICC, said in May 2012 that the only legal authority in the country with decision-making powers on the matter of filtering was the CDICC, even though he had denied the very existence of the CDICC a month earlier.
In a February 2013 meeting, the CDICC has assembled a list of “examples of cyber crimes” related to the upcoming presidential election. Some of the crimes listed include vague notions such as:
– Disturbing the public and creating conflict in society;
– Promotion of boycotting the election;
– Publishing insulting content about the election and candidates;
– Publishing any contents against the regime, government, judicial, legislature, and governmental organizations; and
– Publishing untrue information regarding election results.
The CDICC is empowered to identify sites that carry forbidden content and report the information to the Telecommunication Company of Iran and other major Internet service providers (ISP) for blocking. The CDICC is headed by the prosecutor general and other members are representatives from 12 government bodies. Laws identifying violations that might result in a website being marked for filtering are very broadly defined and range from insulting religious figures and government officials to distributing pornographic content and illegal circumvention tools.
The CDICC’s expert council ordered the filtering of content surrounding the Majlis elections and Valentine’s Day in early February 2012. The CDICC’s council approved the proposal to filter content and ISPs and website administrators were warned via e-mail about their obligation to block this illegal content on their networks.
Also, the CDICC’s expert council ordered the filtering of a popular Persian-language financial website, meshgal.org, in January 2012.
Also Known As:
CDICC
Commission to determinene instances of criminal content
Committe for determining examples of criminal web content
Committee in charge of determining unauthorized websites
Working Group for Determining Offensive Content
Working Group to Determine Instances of Criminal Content
Working Group to Determine Instances of Online Criminal Conent
Involved In:
Human Rights Violations
Country:
Iran
Address:
Sure-Esrafil St, Tehran, Iran
Website:
www.internet.ir
E-mail:
info@internet.ir
Person of interests:
Abdolsamad Khorramabadi
Reason for the color:
» The Treasury Department designated the Committee to Determine Instances of Criminal Content (CDICC) pursuant to E.O. 13628 because it has engaged in censorship or other activities with respect to Iran on or after June 12, 2009, that prohibit, limit, or penalize the exercise of freedom of expression or assembly by citizens of Iran or that limit access to print or broadcast media;
» United States takes action to facilitate communications by the Iranian people and targets Iranian government censorship;