Analysis by PMOI/MEK
Iran, July 30, 2021—In Wednesday’s Majlis (parliament) session, Iranian regime lawmakers approved to vote on a bill to restrict internet access. The bill will put severe restrictions on internet access inside the country and ban all social media networks unless they comply with the regime’s terms.
Currently, all major social media networks are banned inside Iran. Telegram, which at some point had more than 40 million users, was banned after major protests in 2018. Currently the only social network that is available in Iran is Instagram. People continue to access other social media platforms through virtual private networks and proxy servers.
Under the terms of the proposed legislation, all social networking and messaging corporations would need to appoint an Iranian representative and agree to comply with rules on vetting user identities. Failure to comply could lead to their being blocked within four months of the legislation coming into force. In order to be licensed, companies operating social networks would be required to register their subscribers and provide this information to regime authorities if requested.
In recent years, Iranians have used social media and messaging applications to organize protests and to send photos and videos of protests and the brutality of the regime’s security forces. The main goal behind the legislation is to counter protests and to give the regime free rein to suppress protesters.
The regime’s own officials have shown mixed feelings toward the legislation and are worried about the possible repercussions it can have.
Outgoing communications minister Mohammad Javad Azari Jahromi warned that the legislation would weaken the regime’s political system. It is worth noting that in the past four years, Jahromi was the key official who led the policy to cut off internet access during protests.
Even the Ammar Garrison, which is responsible for the regime’s cyber-war and -espionage, compared the bill to “removing the safety pin from a grenade” and warned that “the grenade will explode in the hands of the 13th administration,” referring to the government of incoming regime president Ebrahim Raisi.
But the Majlis decided to proceed with the plan despite warnings. Majlis Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, said, “The main arguments against the bill are unrealistic. Experts and activists should not make statements under the influence of fake news and before examining the plan.”
And MP Mohammad Ebrahim Mohebbi alluded that the MP was cued by regime supreme leader Ali Khamenei to proceed with the bill.
But cutting off internet access will put the regime in a very complicated situation. On the one hand, it wishes to prevent news of protests from spreading across the world. But on the other hand, internet censorship will cause other problems and will itself trigger further tensions and unrest.
The state-run Chandsanieh channel warned, “If you deprive the people of social networks, you’ll have to wait for the people to take to the streets.”
The fact that the Majlis has decided to focus on this issue while the country is struggling with dangerous crises in the water, electricity, and other vital sectors says a lot about the regime’s worries of the explosive state of the society. And the reaction of the regime’s own officials to the internet censorship bill says a lot more about the problems that the regime is bound to face in the future.
