Technology

Communication technology in the digital age is a double-edged sword. By building a communications network, you also intrinsically provide the technological means to use that network for all sorts of nefarious purposes, many of which do not conform, exactly, to the liberal western ideal of a communications network as an open marketplace of ideas. Count now among the recently cut by the backswing Siemens AG and Nokia Corp, two major European companies that created Nokia Siemens Networks, a joint venture created to help Iran develop its mobile phone networking technology. The very technology Nokia Siemens Networks supplied is now being used by the Iranian government to control online content on a massive, almost unheralded scale.

Reported first by Futurezone and then by the Washington Times, the Iranian government appears to be using Nokia Siemens Networks technology to engage in an online snooping process called deep-packet inspection. The practice works especially well when all communication is funneled through a single pipe, as is the case in Iran. In deep-packet inspection, a piece of hardware intercepts a digitized packet of data, deconstructs it, searches it for keywords, and reconstructs the packet . . . all within milliseconds. Just about any packet of data can be deconstructed, including email, images, phone calls, and messages posted to social networking sites like Facebook or Twitter.

“Iran Is now drilling into what the population is trying to say,” said Bradley Anstis, director of technical strategy for Marshal8e6 Inc, as reported by the Wall Street Journal. “this looks like a step beyond what any other country is doing, including China.”

The main difference between Iran’s and China’s censorship initiatives is a matter of centralization. In Iran, telecommunications of all sorts are under the purview of a monopoly—the state-run Telecommunication Infrastructure Co.—making censorship a one-stop option. Not so in China, where censorship initiatives are enacted at the level of its internet service providers (ISPs). Thus, all of China’s ISPs have to be on the same page in order for the government’s censorship program to remain bulletproof.

According to the Wall Street Journal, several human rights groups have taken Nokia Siemens Networks to task for selling the notoriously-repressive Iranian regime the technology that would allow it to crack down on dissidents and other rabble-rousers. But that, really, misses the point: technology is a blunt tool that knows no intrinsic right or wrong. After all the same hammer that builds a house can also be used to destroy it. Likewise, the same technology that helps the Iranian government stifle internal dissent can also be used by more liberal countries, like Great Britain or the United States, to stop terrorist activity in its nascent stages. The same technology can also be used to crack down on drug trafficking, human trafficking, child pornography, and all manner of infamous crimes.

When asked about the selling of the equipment to a government like Iran’s, Nokia Siemens Networks’ spokesman Ben Roome said, according to the Wall Street Journal, “we believe providing people, wherever they are, with the ability to communicate is preferable to leaving them without the choice to be heard.” Agreed. Because for every heavy-handed, ham-fisted attempt by a government to stifle the free flow of information, there exists a hacker just waiting to unclog the pipe, reconnect the nodes, or figure out a way around the castle walls. Here’s to an Iran where the people are free to choose the government they want and deserve.

By Robert Pothier