International Pressure, Domestic Prison Pipeline

Sanctions ban international certificates for Iranian banks. The “solution”? A government Root CA that everyone is now forced to trust.Congratulations. You’ve just made ordinary people’s HTTPS traffic a lot easier for the IRGC and their friends to intercept, inspect, and abuse.

A state-controlled CA isn’t neutral plumbing. It sits inside the trust model. Once browsers or devices accept it, forged certificates become far simpler.

That opens the door to surveillance that routinely ends in harassment, blackmail, and prison.The people who actually get fucked are not the regime. They’re the ones who just needed a working bank login or a normal website without handing the intelligence services an extra lever. Security infrastructure is supposed to stay independent precisely because ordinary Iranians don’t control the institutions around them. When sanctions kill the independent options and shove everyone toward a Gov Root CA, you’re not pressuring the government. You’re arming the people who already lock people up.