NetBlocks @netblocks@mastodon.social
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On 20 January the Wall Street Journal published an op-ed written by an Iranian politician promoting the Islamic Republic's viewpoint.

Today, we wrote a letter to the Journal's editorial team requesting that they qualify the article, explaining how it was submitted for publication (particularly whether the Internet was used) and also highlighting that the Iranian public are denied the opportunity to express their opposing viewpoints due to the ongoing internet blackout.

Letter transcript: Regarding the Journal's publication of Iranian minister Abbas Araghchi's op-ed on 20 January 2026, without prejudice to its merit, I suggest that instances where a government has their writing published while they cut off their citizens' ability to do the same through the use of telecommunications blackouts should be prefixed with two vital pieces of context for transparency — namely, it should be stated: by what means the op ed was submitted, digitally, over the internet, or otherwise that an equal platform was denied to that government's opposition due to digital restrictions I believe you have the technical material you need to do this from our interview on the 20th, and from years of collaboration with the Journal covering incidents around the world. Further, I recommend that this policy be extended to future op-eds published during a nation-scale internet blackout in any country. Alp Toker Director NetBlocks https://netblocks.org
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