The anti-internet filtering software, Haystack, received the necessary export license from the US government last week to sell their product to Iran in an effort to help Iranian citizens gain free speech. Inspired by the internet restrictions during the June 2009 elections, the software uses mathematical formulas to mask users’ identities and to allow them to access and post items on government blocked websites such as Facebook, Twitter, Gmail and YouTube. Haystack was created by the non-profit Censorship Research Center in San Francisco, and according to the company’s executive director, Austin Heap, the only way to disable the software is by disabling the entire internet.
NEWS
US approves anti-filtering software for Iran
The anti-internet filtering software, Haystack, received the necessary export license from the US government last week to sell their product to Iran in an effort to help Iranian citizens gain free speech. Inspired by the internet restrictions during the June 2009 elections, the software uses mathematical formulas to mask users’ identities and to allow them […]
By Intern
20 Apr 10
By Intern
READ MORE
-
Left speechless: how trauma is leaving children in Gaza unable to communicate
The psychological toll of living in a warzone is causing young people to lose their ability to speak
-
Tunisia’s Spring is over
President Kais Saied's rule is becoming increasingly authoritarian
-
The week in free expression: 19–25 April 2025
Index rounds up of some of the key stories covering censorship and free expression from the past seven days
-
Mahmoud Muna: “There is a policy of oppression towards cultural institutions”
Index interviews “the bookseller of Jerusalem” about the recent raids on his bookshop and the ongoing crackdown on literary free expression in Isra...