Majlis and Rahbord

Majlis and Rahbord

Ineffectiveness of Iran's Current Legislative Criminal Policy: A Necessity for New Criminal Policy-Making Regarding Criminal Activities on Information Technology Commercial Platforms

Document Type : Research Paper

Authors
1 Department of Criminal Law and Criminology, Faculty of Law, Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran, Iran
2 Department of Criminal Law and Criminology, Faculty of Law, Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran, Iran.
3 Department of Intellectual Property Law, Faculty of Law, Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran, Iran.
Abstract
The escalating prevalence of information and communication technologies and the increasing role of commercial platforms in daily life have introduced novel challenges to Iran's criminal policy in addressing platform-based offenses. The open, transnational, and cyber-corporate nature of these platforms complicates the application of traditional criminal law, while the absence of effective control policies and a lack of alignment between criminal policy and the essence of these phenomena pose threats to security, social justice, and national sovereignty. This descriptive research, employing a library-based methodology for data collection and analysis, examines Iran's legislative criminal policy concerning criminal activities on information technology commercial platforms. It seeks to answer the core question: What are the causes of the current ineffectiveness of Iran's legislative criminal policy regarding criminal activities on information technology commercial platforms? The findings reveal that legal deficiencies in corporate criminal liability, the multiplicity of policymaking authorities, and the ensuing crisis of coherence are among the most significant manifestations of legislative criminal policy's shortcomings in Iran. Furthermore, reactive measures such as content filtering (or "purification") implemented without considering their individual and social harms, the fragmentation of regulations, the inability of traditional criminal laws to address emerging platform-based offenses, and the ineffectiveness of territorial criminal jurisdiction over international platforms have exacerbated this ineffectiveness. Given these challenges, adopting a novel criminal policy in Iran concerning criminal activities on information technology commercial platforms is an undeniable imperative.
Keywords
Subjects


Articles in Press, Accepted Manuscript
Available Online from 01 August 2026