Analysis by PMOI/MEK
Iran, August 5, 2021—The Iranian regime's Majlis (parliament) is moving to vote on a new bill to limit internet access in Iran. The discussion of the internet censorship bill by the parliament has caused outrage among the people to the extent that the media, fearing the people’s anger, are warning about its problems and potential backlash.
In this regard, the Resalat newspaper wrote on August 1: “Why it was done without considering that it is scientific and it should have been done by research institutes and think tanks and special centers and without considering the negative reaction of the people, they wrongly did it while the plan has effects and It has serious consequences for the government.
"Any explanation and detail required for the bill must be provided before or at least at the same time as the original bill however, like the gasoline case, the explanations and addendum after the plan was published in the media only convey the message that the officials, after seeing the wave of protests, have decided to reduce the burden of the protests a little and keep the people satisfied.”
In another article titled “Virtual Protection", the same newspaper described the MPs’ perspective on internet censorship as unrealistic and stressed that the plan is unfeasible, and it cannot be easily claimed that there’s an alternative to a platform like Instagram inside the country because there is no alternative to this platform not only across the world but also in the United States, where Instagram is based. “A native platform—even assuming the impossible that it matches the quality of platforms such as Google or Facebook—wants to replace an app that has hundreds of millions of users around the world and all the world's celebrities are among its members and all kinds of companies and government centers etc. use it as a tribune all over the globe? So, the issue of having alternatives to these platforms is basically not even discussable,” Resalat wrote.
"According to the second addendum of Article 28, if after four months from the implementation of this bill well-known foreign platforms don’t obtain a license and introduce a representative in the country, they will be filtered if an alternative [to their platform] is introduced. Accordingly, if the High Regulatory Commission approves the internal replacement of services such as Google, Instagram, WhatsApp, etc., these services should be filtered immediately after four months," according to a July 26 report by the Hamshahri daily.
"Although such decisions and approvals are to prevent the occurrence of negative and inappropriate events in the country’s social and cultural environment, but due to the nature of the issue, it is not enforceable, and the law remains unfulfilled. In this situation, is this bill capable of proposing and following up?” Siasatrooz daily wrote on August 1.
Another point on which the media of both regime’s factions agree is that the designers of this plan are institutions that are supposed to make a lot of profit.
"Experts have agreed in recent weeks that the consequences of implementing ‘protection of user rights in cyberspace act’ will be nothing more than rent-seeking, extravagant money spreading in the country, and enlarging the government (meaning increasing barriers for knowledge-based businesses),” according to the Farhikhtegan daily.
Etemad newspaper also referred to the issue of looting people through internet censorship and wrote on August 1: "In tandem with the approval of this plan and the availability of Starlink satellite internet, there may be a point and that is to impose huge costs on cyberspace users and possibly create more profits for importers of satellite internet devices. It seems that the huge financial cycle in the field of media, with the model that has already taken place about the satellite televisions, is on its way to the Internet this time.”
What the media and the officials of both regime factions say is that authorities want to benefit from the implementation of this plan and the so-called national internet.
Assuming that the regime has this possibility and can replace the existing platforms with the Internet and domestic platforms, it will only be hated more by the Iranian people.
It is not without reason that government experts consider the consequences of the implementation of this plan to be "destructive to the social capital of the regime and harmful.”
They are worried about outbreak of a major social uprising. The uprising, which the Ebtekar newspaper columnist described as a " people’s volcano of anger," and warned that lawmakers should consider it, even if their plan is based on "fear of the future and intensification of anger".
The regime approved the bill fearing an uprising and the spread of news on the internet but cutting off the internet will cause more discontent and uprising. This is the paradox that the regime is facing in this regard, and it expresses the impasse in which it is caught. It is one of the signs of the end of the regime.
