Arvan Cloud
"Arvan Cloud is an Iranian IT company supporting the Iranian government’s efforts to control access to the Iranian intranet. Since 2020, it is a major partner in the project of the Iranian government, in general, and the Iranian Minister of Information and Communications Technology, in particular, to set up a separate, Iranian version of the internet. Such a national intranet with connecting points to the global internet will help to control the flow of information between the Iranian intranet and the global internet. As such, Arvan Cloud is involved in censorship and efforts of the Iranian government to shut down the internet in response to recent protests in Iran. Arvan Cloud is also associated with persons responsible for serious human rights violations in Iran, notably the EU-listed Iranian Minister of Information and Communications Technology."1
"Navyan Abr Arvan Private Limited Company, known as Arvan Cloud, has played a prominent role in the Iranian government’s development of the NIN infrastructure, a censored version of the Internet under the control of Iranian authorities. The government has responded to the protests that began at the end of 2022 following the death of Mahsa Jina Amini, as well as previous rounds of protests, with significant Internet disruptions and restrictions, in addition to mobile network shutdowns and curfew-style disturbances. The Iranian regime has sought to move domestic Internet traffic to the NIN in an effort to mitigate the billions of dollars in lost economic activity it incurs when it imposes internet restrictions to suppress dissent. As a web-hosting service and content delivery network, Arvan Cloud has helped lay the groundwork for the NIN’s integrated cloud network infrastructure. In contracts with the Ministry of Information and Communications Technology (ICT), Arvan Cloud has explicitly agreed to provide interception for the government, allowing Iranian authorities to control and censor incoming and outgoing traffic and surveil data on the servers. Arvan Cloud has also blocked websites at the request of Iran’s Committee to Determine Instances of Criminal Content (CDICC), a government entity previously designated by the United States pursuant to E.O. 13628 for its role in monitoring online content and playing a major role in the filtering of websites deemed to be against the regime’s national beliefs and safety.
Arvan Cloud maintains a close relationship to Iran’s Ministry of Intelligence and Security (MOIS), and senior managers of Arvan Cloud are either current or former affiliates of MOIS. Former MOIS officials have also publicly encouraged the use of Arvan Cloud services."2
"Arvan Cloud is an involved person within the meaning of the Iran (Sanctions) (Human Rights) (EU Exit) Regulations 2019 as it is or has been involved in the commission of serious human rights violations or abuses in Iran, including providing support for any serious human rights violation or abuse in Iran and being involved in the supply of technology to Iran which could contribute to any serious human rights violation or abuse in Iran."3
Sources:
1. https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/PDF/?uri=CELEX:32022R2231&from=EN
