Iran authorities have shut down over 50 torrrent sites linking Black Friday

[Thakur]

There’s a tech crackdown going on in Iran right now. It began in May with the arrests of Iranian Instagram models for posting “un-Islamic” photos. Then, the Supreme Council of Cyberspace — the body responsible for overseeing online activities — announced that it would give foreign messaging apps such as Telegram a year to move data on Iranian citizens to servers inside the country. Now, with the release of "1979 Revolution: Black Friday," the crackdown has spread to the gaming sector.

Since the game's arrival in April, the Iranian authorities have shut down over 50 websites that posted torrent links. Even though "Black Friday" is banned, the Supreme Council of Cyberspace and NFCG find it difficult to block online stores.

Indeed, Iranians have repeatedly proven themselves adept at finding ways around censorship by using tools such as VPNs. As Khonsari noted, “If there’s a will, they’re going to find it. The more Iran pushes hard on the game, the more it’s going to provide people with interest.”

iNK Stories is already thinking about a sequel to the aftermath of the 1979 revolution storyline. If there’s one thing the ruckus about "Black Friday" shows — something the Iranian authorities do not appear to have learned — is that all PR is good PR.