Internet Butcher

Tanzimyar Sharif Technologies

On July 5, 2022, Tanzimyar Sharif Technologies sent a file titled "Technical Proposal for the Electronic Evidence Documentation System" to the technical manager of the Deputy for Cyberspace Affairs at the Prosecutor General’s Office. In the first paragraph of this proposal, the purpose of creating the system called "Edalat Yar" is described as "providing a platform for collecting and accessing real electronic evidence and presenting it to the court." Thus, for the first time, we encounter a tool used by the Prosecutor’s Office to gather evidence against individuals—not institutions or companies.

Our research shows that accessing the content of conversations of civil and political activists after their arrest is one of the first actions taken by security agents of the Islamic Republic. Until about one or two years ago, this process involved pressuring the individual after arrest to hand over their account information, and online account searches were conducted in prison. Recently, however, information, chats, and emails of activists are collected at the place of arrest, since there is a risk that these may be deleted or accounts blocked by their associates. Such a system effectively allows judicial and security authorities to access the content of prisoners’ accounts without a court order or