Nokia Siemens responsible for creating the system to censor Iranian citizens

Monday, June 22, 2009, 15:32

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The Iranian protests are still in the news, with a crackdown threatening to quash the oppositions.But now people are turning their attention to some of the details about how the Iranian government is suppressing information: a Washington Times story from earlier this year has resurfaced, highlighting the role played by Nokia Siemens Networks in creating the system to censor Iranian citizens.

Nokia Siemens Networks (NSN), a joint venture between the Finnish cell-phone giant Nokia and German powerhouse Siemens, delivered what is known as a monitoring center to Irantelecom, Iran’s state-owned telephone company.

A spokesman for NSN said the servers were sold for “lawful intercept functionality,” a technical term used by the cell-phone industry to refer to law enforcement’s ability to tap phones, read e-mails and surveil electronic data on communications networks.

Nokia Siemens Networks (NSN), a joint venture between the Finnish mobile phone giant Nokia and German powerhouse Siemens, delivered what is known as a monitoring center to Irantelecom, Iran’s state-owned telephone company.

A spokesman for NSN said the servers were sold for “lawful intercept functionality,” a technical term used by the mobile-phone industry to refer to law enforcement’s ability to tap phones, read e-mails and surveil electronic data on communications networks.

This has since been picked up by the Wall Street Journal, which quotes a Californian internet security expert who says Iran’s system “looks like a step beyond what any other country is doing, including China”.It’s certainly helpful to lift the lid on companies that help repressive regimes operate, all justified in the name of increasing shareholder value. And it throws big questions about NSN, which was formed as a joint venture between Nokia and Siemens, provides telecoms technology used by around a fifth of the world’s population, and whose chairman is Olli Pekka Kallasvuo, Nokia’s chief executive (a lawyer by trade).

Yet while it’s system is extensive and the way it is used reprehensible, it is worth remembering that this is hardly the first time that this has happened – and barely any major technology company remains entirely free of taint. Yahoo, Microsoft and Google have all been accused of complicity in Chinese censorship, while China’s “great firewall” is largely the work of US networking giant Cisco Systems (for more on the firewall, this Atlantic article by James Fallows is worth reading).

Last year it emerged that Cisco had not simply worked for the Chinese government, but had also actively marketed its technology as a way to repress Chinese citizens. This Wired piece outlines internal documents showing that in 2002 Cisco had said it would help to “combat ‘Falun Gong’ evil religion and other hostiles”.

Elsewhere, every time filtering, censorship or spying takes place in Burma, Madagascar, Syria, Vietnam – or even closer to home – the chances are that some major company is involved somewhere along the line.

The events unfolding in Iran, and the repression of communication systems, are massively important. But they also open up the questions about the role of our major corporations in global politics: perhaps it’s about time to make these companies account for their role in suppressing millions of people.

via:guardian