In the latest move to regulate its use, the Organization of Communications Regulations has putout new laws imposing restrictions on sending SMS. For a typical cell owner, he has to go through security checks by the Ministry of Intelligence and Security (MOIS) to receive clearance for using the service.
Sending SMS deemed contrary to national security will be punishable by law. Any change of address by the subscriber of the service must be reported promptly to the relevant authorities. It is the security agents who decide which SMS are in breach of national security.
The State Security Forces (SSF) – mullahs' suppressive police – has random checks in the streets to catch the violators. In a case, a man was arrested on random checks at a bus station in downtown Tehran for having sent a picture of a bus not fit for passenger use on Friday.
In October, A number of senior officials of the Iranian regime’s Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance (MCIG), the main body for imposing censorship, have expressed its deep concern over the use of SMS messaging by the Iranian Resistance’s network inside Iran.
Sarami, Vice-president of MCIG’s Center for Development of Information Technology, said: “Mojahedin [the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK)] is exploiting country’s communication network to spread their anti-revolutionary SMS messages,” the state-run daily Qods reported on Tuesday, September 30.
According to some figures every day over 20 million text messages are received in Iran, the peak hours are between ten in the evening and one in the morning. The SMS has become a tool to exchange messages by opponents of the regime.
The network of the PMOI inside Iran has sent millions of SMS messages across the country making use of it for organizing protests against the regime.
In the past the regime’s officials while expressing their concern claimed that such activities by the PMOI’s network were directed from abroad.
Davood Zareian, regime’s Minister of Communications told the state-run news agency ILNA on September 24: “the messages have been sent from a foreign SMS center.”
But the mullahs' officials now admit that the Iranian Resistance’s network is using the country’s communication network from inside Iran.
In recent weeks the clerical regime has staged a repressive campaign to counter the activities of the PMOI’s network. On September 13, Tabnak Website belonging to Mohsen Rezaii former commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) criticized the regime’s security apparatus for their incompetence in countering the activities of the Resistance’s network.
“In Tehran, supporters of the PMOI distributed CDs containing speeches and clips of their activities door to door. Some media have even reported distribution of similar CDs in other cities in Tehran province, including Karaj,” the website added.