/

A Huawei telecommunication array, displayed in a company exhibition hall in Shenzhen, China, on March 2012.

LONDON -- In the summer of 2008, Iranian security agents arrived at the family home of Saleh Hamid, who was visiting his parents in Iran during a break from his university studies. 

The plainclothes agents, he says, shackled him and drove him blindfolded to a local intelligence detention center. There, he says, they beat him with an iron bar, breaking bones and damaging his left ear and right eye.

Hamid says the authorities accused him of spreading propaganda against the regime and contacting opposition groups outside Iran. The evidence? His own phone calls.

"They said, ‘On this and this day you spoke to such and such person,'" says Hamid, now 30 and a human rights activist in Sweden. "They had both recorded it and later they also showed me the transcript."

Hamid was not the only one. The Iran Human Rights Documentation Center and other human rights groups say they have documented a number of cases in which the Iranian regime has used the country's communications networks to crack down on dissidents by monitoring their telephone calls or Internet activities.

Now a Reuters investigation has uncovered new evidence of how willing some foreign companies were to assist Iran's state security network, and the regime's keenness to access as much information as possible.

Documents seen by Reuters show that a partner of China's Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd. offered to sell a Huawei-developed "Lawful Interception Solution" to MobinNet, Iran's first nationwide wireless broadband provider, as MobinNet was preparing to launch in 2010.

The system's capabilities included "supporting the special requirements from security agencies to monitor in real time the communication traffic between subscribers," according to a proposal by Huawei's Chinese partner seen by Reuters.

The headquarters of Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd. in Shenzhen, China.

Huawei also gave MobinNet a marketing presentation on a system that features "deep packet inspection" -- a powerful and potentially intrusive technology that can read and analyze "packets" of data that travel across the Internet. Internet service providers use DPI to guard against cyberattacks and improve network efficiency, but it also can be used to block websites, track Internet users and reconstruct email messages.

Huawei says it has never sold either system to MobinNet and doesn't sell DPI equipment in Iran. But a person familiar with the matter says MobinNet obtained a Huawei DPI system before it began operating in 2010. The person does not know how MobinNet acquired it or if it is being used.

Asked to comment, Vic Guyang, a Huawei spokesman, said in a statement, "We think it's not for us to confirm or deny what systems other companies have." He later said, "It is our understanding that MobinNet does not have such equipment." An official with MobinNet declined to answer any questions, saying only, "So you know the answers. Why do you need confirmation?"

The relative ease with which Iran has been able to obtain technology that enables surveillance illustrates the cat-and-mouse nature of the American-European campaign to contain Iran's nuclear ambitions through crippling economic sanctions. It wasn't until this year that Europe and Washington -- which primarily have focused on Iran's banks and oil industry -- targeted the sale of monitoring gear to Iran. But even now, the ban is not global, and does not extend to Chinese companies.

Reuters reported in March that China's ZTE Corp had recently sold Iran's largest telecom firm, Telecommunication Co. of Iran, a DPI-based surveillance system that was capable of monitoring landline, mobile and internet communications.

ZTE later said it intends to reduce its business in Iran. Huawei made a similar announcement a year ago.

Fixing ‘the problem of youth’
The documents seen by Reuters challenge statements made by Shenzhen-based Huawei that it doesn't sell any Internet monitoring or filtering equipment.  

But the documents' descriptions of the Huawei systems pitched to MobinNet emphasize their filtering capabilities and ability to enable monitoring by security agencies.

For example, a proposal made to MobinNet dated April 2009 offers what it calls a Huawei "lawful interception" solution. The proposal was prepared by China's CMEC International Trading Co., which states in the document that it had selected Huawei as its bid partner.

"As we know, lawful interception is mandatory and sensitive for the operators in Iran," the proposal states.

An accompanying diagram illustrates how the system can duplicate data streams and transmit the copies to multiple "monitoring" centers. It also states that more than 0.5 percent of all subscribers could be targeted and that individuals would not be aware their communications were "being intercepted."

CMEC is a part of an engineering conglomerate that includes a unit that for years has been under U.S. sanctions for allegedly helping Iran and Iraq obtain weapons of mass destruction. CMEC didn't respond to a request for comment. Huawei says it no longer partners with CMEC.

U.S. and other international sanctions are designed to deter Iran from developing nuclear weapons; Iran says its nuclear program is aimed purely at producing domestic energy.

Although Huawei maintains it doesn't sell any filtering technologies, its presentation given to MobinNet, marked confidential, repeatedly says its "DPI Solution" features "URL filtering," which can be used to block specific websites. The presentation also cites a number of customer "success" case studies -- including in Britain, Russia, Colombia, and China -- where it says telecommunication operators were using its system to filter websites.

For example, the presentation states that a Chinese telecoms firm was using the Huawei system "to settle the problem of youth getting secure and healthy access to websites, and the traffic should be controllable." The presentation also states that the system was used during the 2008 Beijing Olympic games to block "illegal" Internet phone services, filter websites and to conduct "user behavior analysis."

In a series of emailed statements, Guyang, the Huawei spokesman, did not address Huawei's claim that it doesn't "provide any services related to monitoring of filtering." But he says website filtering is used by many telecoms, including in the U.S., "as part of efforts to counter cyberterrorism, child pornography, smuggling of narcotics and other crimes, as well as illegal websites and data."

He said Huawei "did not sell products containing this function in Iran." He also said the Huawei system described in the proposal -- the Quidway SIG9800 -- can't access "content" in the telecommunications network.

But a former Huawei employee who has worked in Iran said the SIG9800 can be used to reconstruct email messages provided they are not encrypted. "This product has some special usage which Huawei customers do not like to share ... especially in Iran," said the former employee, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Storing every text message
The proposal to MobinNet for the Huawei lawful-intercept system states that it includes technology from a German company called Utimaco Safeware AG. Utimaco says Huawei is one of its worldwide resellers but that neither MobinNet directly -- nor Huawei on behalf of MobinNet -- purchased or licensed its products.

The proposal also states that Huawei equipment at another Iranian telecom had "already successfully integrated with" an Utimaco product "and accumulated rich integration experience, which will be shared."

The other Iranian telecom isn't named but Malte Pollmann, Utimaco's chief executive officer, confirmed that in 2006, Nokia's German unit had purchased Utimaco software for MTN Irancell, Iran's second-largest mobile phone operator which has a major contract with Huawei. He said the product hadn't been maintained for several years and that Utimaco believes it no longer is being used.

MTN Irancell is 49 percent owned by South Africa's MTN Group, Africa's largest telecom carrier. It declined to comment about the Utimaco product.

Interviews and internal MTN documents reviewed by Reuters show that prior to MTN Irancell's launch, Iranian intelligence authorities took a keen interest in the capabilities of its lawful-intercept system, and pushed to make it more intrusive.

Like most countries, including the United States, Iran requires telephone operators to provide law enforcement authorities with access to communications. But people who have worked at Iranian telecoms say authorities sometimes abused their access, targeting certain individuals without a warrant or with little or no explanation.

In response, a spokesman for Iran's mission to the United Nations in New York emailed a section of Iran's constitution which states that recording telephone calls, eavesdropping and censorship "are forbidden, except as provided by law." 

The terms of MTN Irancell's license agreement stipulated that Iran's security agency could record and monitor subscribers' communications, including voice, data, fax, text messaging and voicemail, the internal MTN documents show. "At least 1 percent of all subscribers" could be targeted, and authorities wanted access to their location -- "within 10 to 20 meters" -- as well as billing information, according to the documents.

Related stories

Navy officials poke holes in Iran's drone claim

US nonprofit 'names and shames' businesses to put bite into Iran sanctions

Skulduggery at sea: Iran uses tankers off Malaysia to evade oil embargo

Iran sanctions exceed expectations but still don't change Tehran's behavior

According to a person familiar with the matter, prior to its launch, Iranian authorities pushed MTN Irancell to provide them with even more surveillance capabilities. The requests included copying and storing all text messages on the network for 30 days and providing 36 different monitoring centers with access to communications. 

The authorities also wanted to be able to intercept every call handled by an individual mobile-phone tower. "They were not talking of a single tower, they were talking of a large number of towers," the person said. "That is not the norm."

MTN, which oversaw the telecom's launch, didn't express to the authorities any concern about potential abuse, according to this person. Rather, the company argued during a series of meetings that the new requirements weren't part of the scope of the licensing agreement. MTN offered to add other surveillance capabilities over time, this person said.

MTN declined to comment. In April, its chief executive, Sifiso Dabengwa, said that any allegations that MTN was complicit in human rights abuses in Iran "are both false and offensive."

The Iranian intelligence authorities eventually agreed to hold off on their surveillance wish list - and allowed the telecom's launch. But they made clear they expected MTN Irancell would eventually install more capabilities, according to the person familiar with the situation.

The extent to which MTN Irancell later added new surveillance capabilities to its network remains unclear. The network did add enhanced location-based services in 2011.

A British company, Creativity Software, announced in August 2009 that it had won a contract to supply the technology, which it said would allow MTN Irancell to offer its customers special rates at home.

An official with Creativity Software did not respond to requests for comment. In a statement last year, the company said its sale was legal and "any connection implied between the provision of commercial location-based services deployed by MTN Irancell in Iran and any possible human rights abuses is ... erroneous."

Hamid, the human rights activist who says Iranian security agents told him in 2008 they had listened to his telephone conversations, says he had been using a cellphone he had purchased through MTN Irancell.

Then a student at a Syrian university, he said that he had returned to Iran to visit his family in Ahwaz, Khuzestan. The region is home to many Iranian Arabs who allege they have been subject to discrimination and economic deprivation by the Iranian government.

Now 30, Hamid said he eventually was released on bail and fled the country. But he said he was arrested in Iraq, jailed for three years and finally received refugee status in Sweden.

He said he was surprised that Iranian authorities had intercepted his phone calls. "I was completely taken aback," he said. "When I bought the Irancell mobile, I didn't even buy it in my name."

MTN declined to comment. The spokesman for Iran's U.N. mission said Hamid's allegations "are unfounded" and that Iran's constitution protects the rights of Iranian Arabs and other ethnic groups.

"Iran's constitution also bans any kind of torture and espionage," the spokesman added.

Additional reporting by Yeganeh Torbati in Dubai.

More from Open Channel:

• Behind high court racial cases, a little-known conservative recruiter
• Asia coal export boom brings no bonus to American taxpayers
• Toll authority quick to seek payment, not so good at refunding overpayments
• American held in Cuba wants US to sign 'non-belligerency pact' to pave release
• Cuba pushes swap: its spies jailed in US for  American jailed in Havana
• Livestock falling ill in fracking regions | Industry insider offers rebuttal
• Tobacco industry used trade pacts to try to snuff out anti-smoking laws
• Jeb Bush's reputation as education reformer gets a second look

 

Follow Open Channel from NBCNews.com on Twitter and Facebook

Ettore Ferrari / EPA file

A security camera stands on a lamp post in front of London's iconic Clock Tower, which houses Big Ben, on July 23.

When the Olympic flame is doused on Sunday, we know the cheers will quiet, the athletes will move on and fans will go home. But will Big Brother stay behind?

Every Olympics host city goes through it: the Olympic hangover. When the athletes step off the medal podiums, the city must clean up, pay the bills and figure out how to monetize a series of shiny new venues. The most important decision, however, might seem much more subtle: What happens to all those new security cameras and other surveillance technologies that were installed for the Games? Privacy experts fret that, as with Athens, Beijing and Vancouver, the Olympics means a steep ratcheting up of security that never really gets ratcheted down.

"It would be a tragedy if the most visible legacy of the Games in London was a huge increase in the amount of surveillance people are subjected to in their everyday lives," said Nick Pickles, director of London-based Big Brother Watch.

Host cities tolerate massive shows of security that would otherwise be unimaginable. In London, which already has more CCTV security cameras than any other city in the world, 2,000 new cameras were installed in the Olympic Village, while nearly 2,000 more were installed around the city, according to Big Brother Watch. License plate recognition systems have been installed throughout London. There are even surface-to-air missiles atop apartment buildings and more military troops on the ground than Britain has in Afghanistan. An $877 million effort, it's been called the largest peacetime deployment of security forces in history, but the question remains: Will there be mission creep? How much of that infrastructure and the public’s newfound tolerance for being watched will remain after the Games are finished?

Earlier this year, the Electronic Frontier Foundation published an analysis of all recent Games and says the results are disheartening.  It should come as no surprise that the Beijing Summer Games were used as an excuse to install thousands of cameras that are still in operation, said the report’s author, Rebecca Bowe. But other cities have suffered similar fates, too.

"The Games bring a legacy that lives well beyond the prestige," Bowe said. "We've witnessed time and again, the security infrastructure lives on well beyond the Games."

Concrete concerns
The concerns aren't merely theoretical. Athens officials installed about 1,000 cameras for the 2004 Summer Games. In 2007, Greece amended its national data protection law to exempt the cameras; Greek privacy commissioner Dimitris Gourgourakis resigned over the incident. The cameras have since been used during protests following economic unrest there.

More Olympics coverage in London 2012: Hosting the Games

The Olympics has a long-running legacy as a massive security event, which long pre-dates post-9/11 terrorism concerns. It dates at least as far back as the Munich Summer Games of 1972, when a security breach contributed to the kidnapping of Israeli athletes from the Olympic Village; 11 were eventually murdered.  But even before that event, the Olympics were never free of international politics and the real possibility that some group might use them to violently make a point.

No one disputes the need for heightened security during the Games, but is the installation of security infrastructure, and the culture that comes with it, a one-way street? Can a security state be dismantled? Or are the Games a Trojan horse that allows those with a heavy-handed security agenda to gain the upper hand?

Olympic security plan transforms London into fortress

"The equipment has been bought and paid for. The real risk is they simply leave it in place and turn it over to local authorities, and by the back door, we have a huge increase in surveillance," Pickles said. "Government officials have made assurances that some of it is temporary, but they haven't said what."

Follow @RedTapeChron

E-mail a tip to Bob Sullivan

Already, whiz-bang security technology in London has proven tempting to local authorities. Pickles pointed to minutes from a recent borough council meeting in Newham, just east of London, where officials openly expressed desire to buy Olympics surveillance technology after the Games end.

Alfredo Lopez, founder of the international privacy advocacy organization MayFirst/PeopleLink, said it's very difficult to reverse the Olympics security buildup.

"There is no way these guys are going to take down those cameras, especially with all the social unrest there," said Lopez, who is based in New York.

Lopez, a professed lover of Olympic sports, said the security issue threatens to squander any of the goodwill gained by the otherwise-peaceful international gathering.

Red Tape Chronicles on NBCNews.com

"I happen to believe, and I know this is corny, (that) the Olympics is one of the greatest things the human race does, so why do these bastards pervert it with their repressive attitudes?" he said. "How can you run a principal event of goodwill and friendship, then at same time, on top of buildings you have missiles? It's totally incongruous. It's very, very disturbing and contradictory to the Olympic spirit. It ruins the whole thing."

Slideshow: Olympic Emotional Moments

/

Click for more from the 2012 summer games in London.

Launch slideshow

'It softens people up'
One fundamental problem of the Games is that they are used as an "obvious show of military capability," Lopez said, with host nations using the occasion the beat their chests about their powerful ability to respond to threats. But Pickles is worried about a much more subtle issue: Residents get used to the trade-off between privacy and heightened security practices, and their tolerance level is slowly raised, leading to fewer objections to police tactics.

"The danger is it softens people up to the next step," he said.

The next step is Brazil in 2016, where circumstances on the ground dictate what will almost inevitably be an even stronger implementation of security force and technology. (Privacy advocates are too pessimistic about the 2014 Winter Games in Sochi, Russia, to use those games as a battleground.) An active battle between paramilitary police forces and organized crime means residents are used to compromised civil liberties, and even before the 2016 Games, Rio de Janeiro will host the World Cup in 2014. Diplomatic cables released by Wikileaks suggest that U.S. government officials have encouraged use of additional surveillance tools by the Brazilian government, as well as a partnership with U.S. security agencies.

As a result, market research firm 6Wresearch predicts the market for security cameras will nearly quadruple, to $362 million, by 2016.

By then, Pickles warns, people have another element to worry about: increased sophistication of technologies like facial recognition. Londoners, for example, would almost certainly not tolerate a permanent military presence in the city. But as police gadgets get smaller and smarter, they also become less visible.

Slideshow: When the Olympics is your neighbor

/

A diverse community in East London will welcome the world to Britain for the 2012 Olympic Games. Meet residents and hear how they feel about having a huge, world stage in their backyard.

Launch slideshow

"It's getting more discreet, even as the processing power is getting more powerful," he said. "It's becoming much more clandestine, ... which means people won't object to it as much."

Looking to Vancouver
Brazil and London might be able to learn something from Vancouver's experience after the 2010 Winter Games. Western Canada has an active civil participation culture, and even before the Games began, Canada's privacy commissioner warned about mission creep in Olympics security plans.

"The right to privacy must be upheld, even during mega-events like the Olympic Games, where the threat to security is higher than usual," Commissioner Jennifer Stoddard said in a speech delivered before the Games calling for dismantling of surveillance technology after the Games. "Will the residents of Vancouver and the lower mainland wind up living surrounded by an array of surveillance systems that they neither want nor need?"

Partly as a result, most of the 900 video cameras installed by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police were removed after the Games. About 75 were left behind for use by the Vancouver police, said Adam Molnar, who is studying the Olympics security effect as part of his Ph.D. work at the University of Victoria.

Slideshow: Venues for 2012 London Olympic Games

Oda / Getty Images

From Wimbledon to Wembley Stadium to The Dome, a look at the venues for the 2012 London Olympic Games.

Launch slideshow

"British Columbia civil liberties associations put pressure on the Vancouver Police Department, which was in negotiations to keep the cameras up," he said. Even some of the remaining cameras were turned off, only to be used in crisis situations, he said.

On the other hand, analysis of Vancouver's post-Olympics security hangover is muddied by the fact that in the spring of 2011, there were major riots after the Vancouver Canucks lost hockey’s Stanley Cup final. City officials have successfully turned to Twitter and other social media tools that deputized people to help identify criminals during the riots. Given the embarrassment over the riots, many residents were eager to help.

"That turns out to be an alternate route to (security) cameras everywhere," Molnar said.

The most lasting legacy of the Vancouver Games, Molnar said, was not police gadgetry, but rather reorganization of the police force into small, nimble anti-riot teams that share some characteristics with paramilitary teams.

"The extent that militarist ideal supplants community-based policing, that should concern people," he said. "And any time you have a deepening of integration between civilian and military police, like you have now in London, that's disturbing."

Molnar felt confident that Vancouver's security experience offered some hope to privacy advocates in London and Rio, however.

"You can look to Vancouver as a positive example of an active civil liberty and political community that tried to engage the government around privacy and surveillance issues, and that did earn some small victories," he said. "In many ways it's forced policing agencies to respond to public debate. ... There's certainly a need for informed civilian oversight."

'Mega-events'
But Bowe, of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, said she's worried that the Olympics will continue to be abused as one of a list of "mega-events" that give officials permission to tighten the security screws until tremendous power is concentrated in small government forces.

"The march toward a militarized, urban future will continue apace unless people push back," she said. 

And Lopez sees little room for hope at the moment.

"My general worry as a human being is about the setting up of apparatus of police states in all of these places," he said.

Even those who have faith in the good intentions of their current government are being short-sighted, he warned.

"The (U.S.) and some of these places are not a police state now. But the problem is if the apparatus is set up, it could be easily be Nazified and turned on people. ... If there's a history to the world, it's that certain small, elite groups of people usurp and pervert the great works of the majority of humanity, like the Olympic Games, for nefarious and selfish purposes."

* Follow Bob Sullivan on Facebook.
* Follow Bob Sullivan on Twitter. 

LONDON - Britain’s Government on Thursday confirmed plans to log details about every email, phone call or text message in the country to help anti-terror services track suspects.

Police and security agencies will also be able to access records of activity on social network sites, webmail, Internet-based phone calls and online gaming.

Britain’s Home Secretary, Theresa May, said the change – costing $2.7 billion public funds - was needed to keep up with how criminals were using new technology.

But many others, including lawmakers from May’s own Conservative Party such as David Davis, who described it as “incredibly intrusive”.

Under the proposed law, which has yet to be approved by parliament, telecoms companies would be obliged to gather a wealth of information on their customers and keep it for up to one year. 

Read more on the story at ITV News

Local councils would be barred from access to the data, but police, the security services, customs and tax officials would be able to use the information.

The Home Office said it would not need to read the body text of emails or eavesdrop on phone calls without a warrant.

The chief executive of the Child Exploitation and Online Protection told ITV News that he welcomed the government's new plans into tracking suspects through their use of emails and websites. Peter Davies said that data is needed "to protect the public" from serious offenders.

However, Nick Pickles, director of privacy campaign group Big Brother Watch, said the proposals were "the very definition of Big Brother" and described the law as “dangerous”.

In an editorial article in Britain’s Murdoch-owned mass-market daily tabloid, The Sun, May defended her proposals as “sensible and limited," adding that worries that the Bill would stomp on free expression were "ridiculous" and dreamed up by "conspiracy theorists." 

The Home Office claimed the cost of the data-gathering would be covered by reductions in tax fraud and seizure of criminal assets.

ITV News is the UK partner of NBC News.

More world news from msnbc.com and NBC News:

• Report: US expands secret 'shadow war' in Africa
• UK PM grilled over links to Rupert Murdoch's empire
• NBC's Richard Engel answers your questions on Syria
• 'Maple Spring' student protests: Crackdown roils Quebec
• 'Forest boy' mystery: Stumped cops release photo
• Shot in the dark: Blinded sailor aims for Paralympics
• Survey: World's opinion of US, Obama slips

Follow us on Twitter: @msnbc_world

The U.S. military is using small spy aircraft disguised as private planes as it expands secret intelligence operations across Africa, The Washington Post reported late Wednesday.

The surveillance missions are part of a "growing shadow war against al-Qaida affiliates and other militant groups," the newspaper said.

Citing a former U.S. commander, the Post said about dozen air bases have been set up for the unarmed spy planes in Africa since 2007. The newspaper said they include sites in Burkina Faso, Uganda, Ethiopia and Kenya as well as in the Seychelles.

The report added:

"The surveillance is overseen by U.S. Special Operations forces but relies heavily on private military contractors and support from African troops.

The surveillance underscores how Special Operations forces, which have played an outsize role in the Obama administration’s national security strategy, are working clandestinely all over the globe, not just in war zones. The lightly equipped commando units train foreign security forces and perform aid missions, but they also include teams dedicated to tracking and killing terrorism suspects."

The Post said that the U.S. Africa Command declined to comment on "specific operational details."

However, the command confirmed that it worked "closely with our African partners ... to conduct missions or operations that support and further our mutual security goals."

More world news from msnbc.com and NBC News:

• Report: US expands secret 'shadow war' in Africa
• UK PM grilled over links to Rupert Murdoch's empire
• NBC's Richard Engel answers your questions on Syria
• Transgender pageant winner murdered in South Africa
• 'Maple Spring' student protests: Crackdown roils Quebec
• 'Forest boy' mystery: Stumped cops release photo
• Shot in the dark: Blinded sailor aims for Paralympics
• Survey: World's opinion of US, Obama slips

Follow us on Twitter: @msnbc_world

Ed Jones / AFP - Getty Images

Artist Ai Weiwei holds a webcam that he was reportedly ordered by Chinese police to disconnect at his home in Beijing on Thursday.

Artist and activist Ai Weiwei turned off four live webcams in his home late Wednesday after Chinese authorities ordered him to take them down. The live stream had been viewed around 5.2 million times in two days, he told NBC News.

Ai had launched the live video at weiweicam.com on April 3, the one-year anniversary of his detention at Beijing's international airport. He was held for three months during a crackdown on dissent and was subsequently fined 15 million yuan ($2.4 million) for alleged tax evasion, which he denies.

"I wanted them to see me on the first anniversary of my detention," Ai told NBC News in a phone interview on Thursday. "I'm still under surveillance from the public security."

Chinese authorities called him and said they "noticed I put something out on the Internet," and said they hoped he would take it down, Ai told NBC.

Behind The Wall: Ai Weiwei turns camera on himself, citing 'global' problem

"And I asked them, 'Is that an order?' And they said 'Yes, it's an order,'" Ai said.

He was not given a reason for the order, The Guardian newspaper reported.

Coup rumors spark China crackdown on social media websites

Despite having to turn off the live stream, Ai said he had still sent out a message.

"It's about power and individual creativity and about the Internet and about the privacy. You know, this issue about intruding into other people's privacy."

More from msnbc.com and NBC News:

• 'Martyr for Greece': Retiree's suicide sparks violent protests
• With $10 million bounty on his head, militant openly taunts US
• Reports: 23-year-old with $315K bar bill held in trading probe
• Better luck next year? Scotland's pandas fail to mate
• 'I've got snakes on a plane': Pilot makes emergency landing
• PhotoBlog: Wife held at knifepoint for 6 hours

Follow us on Twitter: @msnbc_world

PETER PARKS/AFP/Getty Images

Artist and fierce government critic Ai Weiwei has turned the tables on China's Communist regime by transforming a crippling tax fine he says is designed to silence him into a huge wave of solidarity.

Chinese artist Ai Weiwei turned his life into an unscripted version of Big Brother when he set up four live webcams at his home, BBC reported. 

Ai told the AFP he hoped the cameras -- which include one filming him while he sleeps -- will encourage transparency from all sides, BBC reported.

The artist was detained for three months last year during an overall crackdown on dissent. Following his release, authorities demanded his design company pay 15 million yuan ($2.4 million) in back taxes and fines. Activists interpreted the penalty as punishment for his criticism of the authoritarian government. He is now banned from leaving Beijing.

Ai insists he has done nothing wrong. He said the tax case against his company appeared designed to damage his reputation while intimidating him and preventing him from "taking part in public affairs and criticizing the government."

The artist was detained April 3 and released June 22. Chinese authorities have said that although Ai was released, he is technically still under investigation for at least a year and could be brought in for further questioning at any time.

According to the BBC, Ai said he had "no clear answers" about why he was placed under surveillance.

"In my life, there is so much surveillance and monitoring... our office has been searched, I have been searched, every day I am being followed, there are surveillance cameras in front of my house," he told the AFP news agency, according to the BBC.

"So I was wondering, why don't I put some [cameras] in there so people can see all my activities. I can do that and I hope the other party can also show some transparency."

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

More from msnbc.com and NBC News:

• Be happy, not just rich, says UN chief
• Myanmar house of fear becomes house of hope
• Colombia 'milestone' as FARC frees captives after over a decade
• Moscow Federation Tower in flames
• Quake rattles Mexico, no reports of major damage
• Ancient treasures of Timbuktu under threat in Mali unrest
• Syria agrees to UN's April 10 peace plan deadline

Follow us on Twitter: @msnbc_world