RightsCon Tunis 2019

In this session, Small Media will unveil a new report on the state of transparency among tech companies whose services are used in Iran. Although the case studies we will use will be Iran-specific, our main objective in this session will be to kick-start a wider conversation about the need for greater transparency on the part of technology companies to safeguard the security of users in closed and semi-closed societies. We will also present a set of transparency standards for tech companies working in closed and semi-closed societies to adhere to, developed in partnership with other regional civil society organisations.

Many discussions about corporate transparency are grounded in the experiences of civil society organisations working in the Global North, and do not take into account the practices of corporate entities as they operate in some parts of the Global South, including Middle Eastern contexts. Our objective in this session will be to bring the needs of MENA-based civil society organisations to the foreground of these discussions, and to outline a set of clear demands for tech companies operating in MENA contexts.

We feel this discussion is important to open up, given that the Iranian government so frequently relies on a lack of transparency among tech companies to provide cover for their policy decisions. Iranian ministers have repeatedly made vague statements about contacts and negotiations with foreign tech companies – claims that have never been confirmed or denied by the companies in question. As a consequence, Iranian Internet users have been left in the dark about the nature of Iran’s demands from these companies, and are only made aware of the negotiations once there is evidence of closer cooperation, for instance in the case of Telegram’s relocation of distribution network servers to Iran.