Government moves to silence criticism it says is CIA funded

The government in Tehran has closed down 29 websites associated with dissident political groups. The government FARS news organization said the sites were funded by the CIA.

The government hacked the sites to detect who was running them and who used the sites. The government arrested 30 people in the crackdown on dissidents, proving the Internet is not a safe haven from governments.

Websites listed in the FARS statement are off-line. One site,  Human Rights Activists in Iran, says it is down for maintenance.

“According to a statement released by the Persian-language website, Gerdab, affiliated to the IRGC’s Center for Combating Organized Crimes, the hacked websites acted against Iran’s national security under the cover of human rights activities.

The IRGC has recently set up the new center to detect and combat organized crimes on the internet.
The newly-established center is tasked with monitoring the internet to detect and campaign against organized crimes, espionage, economic and social corruption, money laundering and cultural inroad.

The announcement came after Iran said yesterday that it has arrested 30 individuals on charges of waging a US-backed cyber war against the country. FARS”

FARS is run by the Revolutionary Guard, a government based military group. The Revolutionary Guard said it found evidence the dissidents were funded by the USA.

With story from ComputerWorld