UANI Applauds AdaptiveMobile for Ending Its Business in Iran, Terminating Contracts with MTN

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
June 7, 2012
Contact: Nathan Carleton,
[email protected]
Phone:
(212) 554-3296

UANI Applauds AdaptiveMobile for Ending Its Business in Iran, Terminating Contracts with MTN

New York, NY - On Thursday, United Against Nuclear Iran (UANI) applauded the Irish telecommunications firm AdaptiveMobile for ending its business in Iran, and for terminating its contracts with MTN Irancell.

After recent discussions with UANI, AdaptiveMobile has now stated that "As of 24th May 2012, AdaptiveMobile formally terminated all contracts with MTN Iran, and no longer has any business in [Iran], consistent with the commitment made in the last communication to UANI."

UANI contacted AdaptiveMobile in May, noting that the company had "sold technology to MTN Irancell that blocks, filters and analyzes user text messages in multiple languages for specific content and subject matter."

UANI called on AdaptiveMobile to "end all business activities in Iran, including the service and maintenance of past contracts." UANI also noted reporting from Bloomberg News revealing that AdaptiveMobile workers discussed specific requests from Iranian law enforcement to increase the filtering and monitoring capabilities of its technology, and partnered with Ericsson to create a system that could monitor and filter over 10,000 text messages per second and archive them for a period 180 days.

Said UANI President, Ambassador Kristen Silverberg:

We applaud AdaptiveMobile for ending its business in Iran, and for terminating its contracts with MTN. AdaptiveMobile has made the responsible decision, and we encourage other telecommunications companies to follow suit.

As for MTN, it should now be fully clear that its reckless partnership with the Iranian regime has badly damaged its reputation and international business endeavors. MTN must leave Iran, and stop enabling the regime's human rights violations.

UANI has since January been highlighting MTN's partnership with the Iranian regime, and its work to help the regime track and monitor dissidents. MTN Irancell is the second-largest mobile phone network operator in Iran, and the majority of its shares are owned by the Iranian regime.

MTN has carried out orders from the regime to shut off text messaging and Skype during times of political protest, and reportedly has a floor in its Tehran headquarters controlled by Iranian security officials.

As part of its "Tech and Telecom Campaign,"UANI has succeeded in curtailing the business of international telecom giants such as Huawei, Nokia Siemens Networks and ZTE in Iran. UANI launched the campaign in 2011 to highlight the practices of international firms that provide the Iranian regime with sensitive technology and telecommunications equipment that the regime uses to facilitate its suppression of the citizens.

Click here to read UANI's full letter to Adaptive Mobile.
Click here to visit UANI's Tech & Telecom page.

###