SUBJECT LINE: Digital Iran Reloaded: Iranian Gamer Mitigation Tactics of IRI Information Controls– Monthly Report – August 2024
About the project
My research aims to show the types of censorship circumvention techniques Iranian gamers use and thereafter clarify the gaps between the internet freedom community and commonly used censorship circumvention tools in the Islamic Republic of Iran (IRI). To do so, I will interview Iranian gamers to contextualize their circumvention strategies with VPNs commonly supported and created within the internet freedom community by testing these varied circumvention techniques.
Additionally, I will cross-analyze my findings with the IRI’s internet tiering system that consequently segregates users based on status, ultimately determining each citizen’s level of internet access. Through this lens, I will study internet connectivity and how the National Information Network under the Supreme Council of Cyberspace of Iran enforces tiering to mitigate user access and acts of protest.
The main goal is therefore to produce a solution for better assisting high-risk internet users in Iran, while also highlighting issues of internet access implemented by the IRI. Another broader impact includes providing valuable information to the circumvention tools developer community and internet policy makers, at a global level.
PUBLIC
Activities during August 2024
- Continued semi-structured interviews on sensitive subject matter with direct regard to the IRI’s suppression methods. Like the initial interview process, I have continued to gather insights regarding the use of VPNs and DNS use.
- Met with a developer that will likely test various ping levels on difference devices (mobile, PC, PlayStation etc.) so that I can compare data to the reported information from the survey. I will follow up on this in September.
- Attended training for the Global Gathering since I will be facilitating a circle.
- Worked closely with Psiphon and Lantern throughout August to achieve survey goals. This meant reporting periodically on the number of respondents and other preliminary findings.
- The survey currently has 596 responses. Of these 596, the majority except a few seem insincere (ex: trolling, joking, etc.). Only a few were from countries outside the parameters of the study (1 from Turkey, 2 from Afghanistan, and then of course 2 from fictitious countries).
- Approximately 13% of the respondents are women.
- The respondents range from the ages of 10 to 78.
- For the question, “how often do you use a filter breaker?”:
- 60.4% responded using a filter breaker all the time.
- 29.2% responded using a filter breaker most of the time.
- 5.4% responded sometimes using a filter breaker.
- 4.4% responded using a filter breaker several times.
- .7% responded never using a filter breaker.
- Users reported the following ISPs
- Most commonly Hamrah-e Aval and Irancell.
- Less commonly Shatel, Parsonline, Asia tech, Mobin net, TCI, Khaleej Online, ADSL like Mokhaberat, etc.
- Users reported the following VPNs
- Psiphon (approximately 1/3 or more of the respondents)
- Lantern (approximately 1/6 or more of the respondents)
- Less commonly V2Ray, Argo, GoFly, BPS, Windscribe, Mirror, SubaVPN, Fire, Bee Pass, etc.
- When users were asked to specify which VPNs/DNS/proxy for which video games, a good portion responded to this question with social networks, and then many did respond to this question with games they play. I think there is an internet user versus gamer distinction that can be made between these different respondents.
- For the question, how often do you use filter breakers to access games:
- 45% responded using a filter breaker all the time.
- 27.7% responded that they usually use a filter breaker.
- 14.9% responded that they sometimes use a filter breaker
- 5.5% responded using a filter breaker several times.
- 5.2% responded having heard about a filter breaker, but not using a filter breaker.
- For the question that describes if they feel confident to trust filtering tools when playing online:
- 197 respondents said they neither agree nor disagree
- 175 respondents said they agree.
- 83 respondents said they totally disagreed
- 81 respondents said they totally agree.
- 60 respondents said they disagreed.
- The survey has three other questions related to confidence level with VPN trust and privacy on the same five-point scale.
- Users reported latency ranges from 1-3000.
- The survey has four questions related to the Seventh Development plan and political trust.
Activities for next month
During September, I will wrap up gathering survey data. 8/30 is the final day for the survey to be up on Psiphon, and Lantern has already taken the survey down. This has been immensely helpful! I have been greenlit by Miaan to post it on a Reddit forum, and a few other discord servers. I am hoping that I can get 50-100 more responses from other gamer communities. I plan to triangulate this data with data collected from interview participants. By mid-September, I will end survey data collection, and start the process of hierarchical regression analysis to gain insight into political and technological trust. I am hoping to bring some initial insights to the Global Gathering along with broader discussions of research successes and mishaps with those who attend my circle. I will continue my conversations with individuals in the developer community to gather additional data that is empirically tested with probes into Iran (i.e., latency, bandwidth and VPN security). Potentially this will be covered by Miaan under their contracts. But I may request reimbursement from OTF. Lastly, it was offered as a suggestion to contact others at tech companies with regards to corporate responsibility. Ultimately, I am looking forward to September as it is a tremendous opportunity to reflect on my research and engage thoughtfully with others.