The Islamic Republic of Iran’s monopoly on the broadcast of film and TV series has effectively ended after the streaming giant Netflix launched its services in the country, according to the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran (ICHRI).
According to the campaign, the Netflix website was immediately filtered by Iranian authorities after it went live in Iran on January 6, 2016. However, users in Iran will be able to watch its full, uncensored content with relative ease by using proxies (tools designed to bypass internet filtering), because Netflix does not require fast internet speeds, ICHRI said.
ICHRI added that Netflix’s entry to Iran has been widely welcomed by Iranians on social media, but will cause “significant headaches for the state censors in Iran trying to limit and control the public’s exposure to the outside world, particularly Western culture.”
Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps warned in October last year that Netflix “is a dangerous threat, which America uses to spread its culture.”
According to ICHRI, it is not clear which authority in Iran ordered Netflix to be filtered. The country’s laws require action by a judge, a prosecutor, or the Working Group to Determine Instances of Criminal Content on the Internet, in order to block access to cyber content.
Read the full report via ICHRI.