Summary

June was a busy month for internet policy making in Iran, especially as it concerns social and political rights of users. This month, the government announced plans to rapidly implement what is referred to in Iran as the Children’s Internet, a program aimed at restricting access to the internet for children and teenagers.  In addition, Khamenei pressured the judiciary to further regulate the internet to fight so-called fake news, while  ICT Minister Eisa Zarepour reinforced his support for ‘layered filtering’. For the second year in a row, the government imposed a limited internet shutdown during university entrance exams.

These developments should not be interpreted as isolated events, all of them align with the Islamic Republic’s underlying philosophy around the internet and policy basis for the National Information Network(NIN). Meaning, the Iranian government views access to the internet as a service on NIN rather than a right to internet access.

The government’s ideal is to wield control over an Internet service that they can connect and disconnect at will for a specific segment of the population at any time.  Moreover,  a user is someone who is identifiable (i.e., lacking full privacy or anonymity) and has access to the content approved by the government/ If the user acts in a manner not approved, the government can identify and persecute them.

The Raeesi administration and Minister of ICT have worked from these perspectives. However, these  policies pre-date his administration and will likely continue to be implemented regardless of who is president.

Review of Iran’s ten-year strategic document on Cyberspace

On June 14, President Raisi chaired the SCC’s 82nd meeting. The goal of this meeting was to review the third section or chapter of the “strategic document of the Islamic Republic of Iran in cyberspace at the horizon of 2031,” according to Mehr News Agency.

Last year in July 2021, the SCC published the strategic document’s first two sections. The third section explores macro goals such as the development of the digital economy, the design and establishment of the system of science, technology, and innovation in Cyberspace, and cyber-diplomacy.

Petitions against the SCC at the Administrative Court of Justice

On June 19, Parliament amended legislation making it impossible to file complaints against the SCC’s resolutions with the Administrative Court of  Justice (ACJ).

According to the amendment made to Article 12 of this law, a note has been added to it that prohibits handling of complaints regarding the approvals of the Supreme Council of Cyberspace by the ACJ.

Launching the “Children’s Internet” in Iran

On June 22, Zarepour promised that the “Internet for Children and Teenagers” would be launched and made available to Iranian families in two weeks.

Zarepour said this plan was designed to “provide special Internet services for children” and  make cyberspace “safe.” He emphasized that the SCC has entrusted his ministry with this project.

Supreme Leader highlights urgency of regulating the internet

On June 28, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei met with judiciary officials to highlight the urgency of further regulating the internet. He criticized what he views as an uncontrolled  cyberspace. “If you do not have laws on this matter, make them quickly,” he said.

He added: “Every once in a while; a rumor spreads in cyberspace which worries people and destroys people’s psychological security. One of the duties of the judiciary is to deal with these kinds of issues. First only newspapers would publish such things, but now it happens in cyberspace too.”

His recent statement is related to a resolution passed by SCC in February 2021, named “Requirements On Preventing And Combating the Publication of False Information, News And News Content In Cyberspace”. This resolution set out to systematically prevent the publication of “fake news and content in cyberspace.”  This resolution basically gave the Judiciary and the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance the authority to take judicial action against individuals and organizations publishing what they believe is fake news.

The main goal of such measures is to censor and control news and the media. For example, if a  news agency does not meet the government’s requirements, they would be labeled as  fake news, and accordingly dissolved.

Internet shutdown during University Entrance Exams

On June 30, the Ministry of ICT spokesperson Mehdi Salem announced on his Twitter account: “At the request of the Ministry of Science and the approval of the relevant authorities, access to the Internet will be limited in the areas where the entrance exams are held today and tomorrow.”

The main  reason provided by the government for imposing an internet shutdown during the university exam was to stop cheating. Although there are other ways such as jamming to stop the type of cheating at issue, internet shutdown was the first and easiest solution. The policy also lacked transparency as officials have declared the relevant orders confidential.

To investigate this claim a Twitter user submitted a freedom of information request on the Iranian government’s Information Transparency Platform of the Iranian government, asking the Ministry of Science, Research and Technology to publish the internet shutdown request made to the Ministry of ICT or any other relative bodies.

“The requested documents and information are confidential documents and this institute[body] is not allowed to provide to an unauthorized person.” said the ministry of ICT in response to a request by a citizen on the Information transparency platform of Iranian government.

The Ministry of Science also responded to this request: “The letter has a classified category, and it is not allowed to be published on the site.”

Iran denies banning WhatsApp and Instagram

On June 28, Zarepour declared the news published regarding their blocking of WhatsApp and Instagram “fake news.” “This is just a rumor. Blocking is not within the Ministry of ICT’s jurisdiction, and no decision has been made on this matter by any official institution,” he said.

In addition to Zarepour, former ICT Minister Mohammad Javad Azari Jahromi, also claimed in the past that as an executive arm he had no authority to block anything.

According to Iranian laws, there are two ways to filter a site or platform: 1) through a court order (this is similar to the Telegram blocking case, which was done with a court order by an investigator); and 2) through the official Working Group to Determine Examples of Criminal Content.

The Minister of ICT defends the Raisi government’s “Layered Filtering”

On June 27, Zarepour defended enforcing ‘layered filtering’ during an interview on the Jahanara program broadcasted on Ofogh-TV. In recent years, the government has been shifting its practices away from direct and uniform methods of filtering and toward a system that tailors filtering methods for different target populations.

He said, “During the election, the President pointed out that there is no place in the world where the Internet available to a university professor is also available to a child. Clearly, these two groups have different needs. Providing children’s Internet is a way to specialize it, and we started with children’s internet first. This [layered filtering] has nothing to do with the labels given to the Cyberspace protection bill and claims related to the Internet shutdown during the last few months. No one in the Islamic Republic of Iran is aiming for an Internet shutdown.”

Contrary to his claims, this ‘layered filtering’ plan violates the principle of net neutrality, which requires service providers to provide equal internet access to all users. This means that all sites, content and applications should be accessible at the same speed and under the same conditions without blocking or giving preference to any content.

The ICT Minister’s comments are consistent with the Iranian government’s policies to-date, not only in the specific context of layered filtering but also more broadly in terms of the advancement of the NIN and also the implementation of higher costs for users to access the international internet over the domestic one.

Offering Tapsi shares in OTC

On June 14, the stock market offered the initial shares of the Internet taxi company named “Tapsi” (with the legal name Yashgaman Fanavari and Danesh Aramis).

Three managers of Telegram channels were arrested

On June 22 the IRGC’s public relations department reported the arrest of the administrators of three Telegram channels on charges of publishing classified documents and disturbing public opinion.

Arrest and harassment of civil activists and social media users for security and non-security reasons has been a trend for the past few years now.

Cyberattack on Iran’s steel industry

On June 25 the SCC announced that Foulad’s information technology systems experienced cyberattacks. According to the notice published by SCC,  parts of Hormozgan and Khuzestan steel units were disrupted by cyberattacks at 6:30am local time.

A hacker group called Predatory Sparrow [also known by its Persian name, Gonjeshke Darande] took responsibility for this cyberattack by publishing a video. This group previously hacked the fuel industry in Iran.

Several cyber attacks have been carried out in recent years, including the hacking of Evin prison cameras, the attack on nuclear facilities with the Stuxnet virus, and the attack on fuel industry.

The promise of increasing the capacity of the entire Internet infrastructure of Iran

On June 27 Zarepour announced: “According to the contract we signed with a domestic consortium, the capacity of the entire country’s infrastructure network will be increased by 70% by October” in an interview with the Jahanara program on Ofogh-TV.