نوع مقاله : مقاله پژوهشی
نویسندگان
1 دانشجوی دکترای حقوق کیفری و جرم‌شناسی، گروه حقوق کیفری و جرم‌شناسی، دانشکده حقوق، دانشگاه تربیت مدرس، تهران، ایران
2 استادیار، گروه حقوق کیفری و جرم‌شناسی، دانشکده حقوق، دانشگاه تربیت مدرس، تهران، ایران
3 استاد، گروه حقوق کیفری و جرم‌شناسی، دانشکده حقوق، دانشگاه تربیت مدرس، تهران، ایران
4 استاد، گروه حقوق مالکیت فکری، دانشکده حقوق، دانشگاه تربیت مدرس، تهران، ایران
چکیده
کلیدواژه‌ها
موضوعات
عنوان مقاله [English]
نویسندگان [English]
Introduction
The advancement of information and communication technologies (ICT) has profoundly transformed the social, economic, and legal structures of modern societies, steering human life toward digitalization. In this digital era, commercial information technology platforms have become fundamental pillars in economic, social, and even political domains. While facilitating
daily activities, these platforms have simultaneously created fertile ground for emerging forms of cybercrime, which—due to their complex,
Iran's Preventive Legislative Criminal Policy … ………… Azim Aghababaei Taghanaki
transnational, and technologically dynamic nature—pose serious challenges to traditional criminal justice systems. In light of the rapid growth of platform-based criminality and the undeniable role of digital platforms in enabling such offenses, it is both urgent and necessary to evaluate and redesign Iran's legislative preventive criminal policy in this context. This study aims to examine the structure and effectiveness of Iran's current legislative criminal policy in addressing criminal activities on commercial platforms and to identify its deficiencies while proposing the need for a new policy framework grounded in modern criminal policy principles.
Methods
This study employs a descriptive-analytical approach and relies on document-based legal research. It examines key legislative instruments relevant to platform-based cybercrime in Iran, including the Computer Crimes Act, the Electronic Commerce Act, the Crime Prevention Act, the Anti-Money Laundering Act, the Counter-Terrorist Financing Act, the Protection of Children and Adolescents Act, and selected resolutions of the Supreme Council of Cyberspace. These legal instruments are analyzed with a focus on their preventive potential, normative consistency, and practical alignment with contemporary goals of crime prevention in cyberspace. Upon identifying the structural and normative inefficiencies of Iran's preventive legislation vis-à-vis platform criminality, the study underscores the necessity of formulating a modern preventive criminal policy. Policy proposals themselves are not within the scope of this paper but are suggested as avenues for future research to fill the identified theoretical and regulatory gaps.
Results and Discussion
The findings reveal that Iran's legislative criminal policy in response to crimes committed via information technology platforms suffers from a lack of institutional coherence and practical effectiveness. There are substantial legal voids concerning the criminal liability of platforms, the implementation of intelligent and technology-based preventive measures, systematic risk assessment, and structural transparency. Current legal provisions primarily rely on content filtering and blocking, without incorporating data-driven, algorithmic, or AI-powered prevention strategies. Although situational crime prevention tools—such as mandatory content removal and suspicious pattern detection—are present in some statutes, they lack robust enforcement mechanisms and broad applicability to digital platforms. Furthermore, the fragmentation of regulatory authorities and the absence of a central specialized regulatory body have rendered the state's response to platform-based criminality slow, reactive, and often ineffective. While the Electronic Commerce Act and the Cheque Issuance Law contain elements that could support non-penal preventive frameworks, they remain rooted in traditional paradigms and fail to engage with platform-specific risks. In the realm of child protection, although platforms are legally obligated to remove harmful content, no binding supervisory mechanisms have been established. Ultimately, the overreliance on content filtering, in place of strategic technological intervention, has not only failed to mitigate cybercrime but has also contributed to the erosion of public trust and the rise of user resistance. Moreover, the analysis shows that the existing regulatory framework, despite containing fragmented preventive elements, lacks technological appendices, clear procedural obligations for platforms, and enforceable standards of preventive compliance. Preventive mechanisms outlined in the Supreme Council of Cyberspace's resolutions—such as access restriction and platform filtering—are primarily reactive in nature and do not reflect intelligent crime prevention models. The continued application of this outdated approach has led to unintended consequences, such as the proliferation of anti-filtering tools and an increase in cybersecurity threats, further undermining the effectiveness of Iran's platform governance.
Volume 18, Issue 3, Autumn 2026
Conclusion
This study concludes that Iran's current legislative preventive criminal policy toward criminal activities on commercial information technology platforms is outdated, inefficient, and institutionally fragmented. To effectively combat the rise of platform-based cybercrime and restore public trust, a paradigm shift is essential—one that adopts soft regulation, enforces platform accountability, encourages public and private sector participation, and leverages modern technologies. Without a fundamental reconfiguration of the preventive criminal policy in this domain, the prospects for effective crime prevention remain dim, and the legitimacy and functionality of the criminal justice system may face serious long-term challenges.
کلیدواژه‌ها [English]
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