Written with Fred Petrossian. A court in Iran’s Kerman province handed down the jailed Narenji technology bloggers an ambiguous sentence of one to 11 years in jail on Thursday. Arrested in a round up last December, the bloggers had written and edited for Narenji, a technology blog that featured news and product reviews. After spending six months in jail, the bloggers were tried and issued what appears to be a “badavi” verdict, where those prosecuted can appeal the decision in 20 days. It is unknown what each sentence is for each blogger, or if those who were previously released will also serve jail time.* This and other recent arrests of bloggers and netizens have undercut the message of a more open society and Internet that dominated western media coverage of current President Hassan Rouhani’s campaign for the office. Many Iranian voters were seduced by Hassan Rouhani’s campaign narrative. His victory kindled hope in the hearts of many young Iranians for a brighter future and easier access to the Internet — an important factor in a nation with one of the highest Internet penetration rates in the region. Unfortunately, these hopes are beginning to wane. Almost a year into Rouhani’s presidency, technical censorship persists as usual and online writers and activists continue to face persecution and jail. Internet policy presents a challenge for the office of the president, as with any reform in the Islamic Republic of Iran, where institutions outside of the control of the elected government often wield the most power and influence on policies. A tightening of Internet controls Rouhani criticized the state of Iran’s Internet throughout his campaign, noting in June of 2013: “We are living in a world in which limiting information is impossible. Youth are faced with bombardment of information and we must prepare to handle it.” His statements regarding his hope that all Iranians can access websites such as Facebook and Twitter were complemented by his acknowledgement of the importance of having Iranians as members of social media websites such as Facebook, Twitter, and Google applications during a conference on Information and Communication Technologies. The institutions responsible for monitoring Iran’s Internet operate outside the jurisdiction of the Rouhani government, accountable to the separate authorities of the judiciary and sometimes the Supreme Leader. Rouhani’s supporters argue that the judiciary acts independently from Iran’s government. Unfortunately, former President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad used the same argument when he was asked about jailed political prisoners. Contrary to Ahmadinejad however, Rouhani has been involved in battles over filtered websites. This was best illustrated when Rouhani had to veto the decision to block WhatsApp by the Committee Charged with Determining Offensive Content (CCDOC), under the control of the Supreme Council of Cyberspace (SCC) and influence from the independent judiciary, both institutions accountable only to the Supreme Leader. While the situation has not come to a decisive conclusion, WhatsApp has yet to be filtered inside Iran. However, the blocked status of both WhatsApp and the popular photo sharing application Instagram are currently under review by both the CCDOC and the judiciary. But those following Internet policy news have increasingly lost hope that positive change is in the future. Nima Akbarpour, a BBC Persian tech journalist, recently tweeted, “there is so much baseless filtering in Iran that increases day by day, that it has become a chore to report the [Internet censorship] news.” News of Iranians unable to access Google Sites and Wikipedia Farsi pages, as well as restrictions on using Instagram in Iran, have signalled a tightening of Internet controls within the country (although, as of this past week what seem to be glitches in the filtering system have given the appearance of freedom with accidental openings in Google Play and Twitter). What explains the recent moves to tighten controls within Iran’s cyberspace alongside Rouhani’s liberal Internet ethos? Cyberspace has always posed one of the hardest challenges to the control of the Islamic Republic over its population. And today it arguably has become the biggest area of struggle between Rouhani and the powerful institutions that hold stake in the situation and are outside the Rouhani administration’s control. While the Internet under Rouhani has not broken free, we can observe three trends in Iran’s virtual world. Mastering forbidden social media Most of the 2013 presidential candidates used social media tools that are blocked by the Iranian government to publicize their campaigns — an activity that was pre-dated by the Supreme Leader, who has been on Twitter since 2009.