P2P in Iran: an Iranian testimony
This article will focus on the role P2P technology and ideas played in the events leading to the iranian revolution of 1979 and how they evolved to become the most important tools to enable the recent contestations in Tehran following the disputed presidential elections.
A contribution by our Iranian friend, Kamran Ghassempour
Kamran Ghassempour:
“P2P concepts have been part of the iranian society for decades and the way iranians consider copyright and new tools is very different from western people. This can be explained by lower income per capita and a willingness to learn using all available tools. Following the recent post-election rallies and the wave of arrests in Iran, traditional western media are finally understanding that the new communications tools like blogs and twitter are more important that traditional tools in a country where the government controls every citizen.
Without becoming too optimistic, we will conclude by showing how these tools are enablers of freedom for everyone of us with a need to challenge established power.
Warning: Before starting to read, I must warn you that I am an Iranian having left the country in 1984. My view is by definition biased but will be different than most usual reporters on my country. My apologies but there is some deep part of us about the country where we are born that we can not change.
The 1979 revolution and use of P2P tools
When you think about P2P, the first tools usually discussed are file sharing tools like Napster, Bittorrent,.. but the concept of P2P is much broader than the use of file sharing tools. It’s about the willingness to share with others what we have. In the case of information, it’s of course easier because we don’t lose the information we share. That’s why, I will start by showing a few low-tech P2P tools available in the pre and post-revolution Iran of 1970’s.
When I was a young boy in Tehran, our favorite hobby was copying audio tapes. There was a full-blown community and organization sharing western music (Michael jackson was the most copied singer). We had no idea that it was illegal and people used to share the music they had on magnetic audio tapes. This is why most of households in Tehran had a tape reader and recorder. This network for sharing audio information was later used in an innovative way by supporter of Khomeiny to broadcast his audio messages to people without access to government controlled media. This is P2P at its early stages in Iran where people began to understand that there are ways to broadcast messages against the ruling government by using every person’s basic tools (audio tape copiers) and willingness to take some risk.
The two elements described above are important : basic tools and willingness to take some level of risk. Today the same elements are present in Iran: basic tools are now Twitter and blogs and the young generation is again ready to take some risks.
The willingness to take some risk is also important. The tipping point of the 1979 revolution was a rally where one person refused to move out when a soldier ordered him. This is similar to current events where the first ones refusing to stop their rallies despite orders by the police generated a nation-wide movement of solidarity.
Another important P2P tool in the pre-revolution Iran was a copy machine. People used to copy entire books because they were out of print or just too expensive and this network was also widely used by many factions to distribute unauthorized tracts and messages from leaders of the 1979 revolution.
How P2P tools evolved and their role in current events in Iran
It’s ironic to see the same P2P concepts evolve and be used against those who started the 1979 revolution. Let’s have a look at these tools :
* Blogs
I read somewhere that Iran is the country with most bloggers per capita in the world. I can not prove it but I can imagine that in a country where citizens don’t have the basic rights of communication and expression, blogging becomes an important tool to be able to share in a fast and anonymous way, ideas not always welcome by the government. I follow a few of the active iranian bloggers inside Iran and am always surprised by their courage knowing that the government can easily track and arrest them. One of their most important protection mechanism is their number: It’s easy to track 10 bloggers but no 10.000.
I was amazed how traditional western media (CNN, BBC, …) missed the events happening in Iran and their importance because of their inability to use Twitter as a major information tool. Just hours after the first rally and the violent reaction of the government, iranian twitters were giving nearly live coverage of events and for those able to select the right twitters and use the right filtering tools, it was possible to follow the events live. It took nealy two days before CNN understood the impotance of events and by then, their reporters were obliged to remain at their hotel. The richness of the information on Twitter contrasted with the emptiness of reports coming from people in their hotel rooms trying to understand what was happening.
Anonymity and access
Unfortunately, once the government understood the importance of these tools, they stared shutting down internet access and tracking people. That’s where anonymous proxies and access to internet by alternative means (satellite) becomes important. I think other important tools and P2P concepts will emerge as the iranian government moves to control traditional wireline access. For example, internet access by satellite and the possibilty to share it by WiFi would be today the most effective way for iranian students to keep their access and be able to share it with others.
Risk taking is more important than tools
As you can see, P2P tools evolved in Iran from audio tape and copy machines to Twitter and blogs but there is something more important than tools : the willingness to share even if it requires to take some risks.
This is according to me one of the pillars of P2P movement : from those sharing their movies in France risking to lose their internet access because of the HADOPI law to young iranian students sharing pictures of rallies on Twitter, they all take some level of risk against current regulation just because they think the value of the information they have is more than the risk they take.”