March marked the final month of the Iranian calendar year 1400. As the end of the year approached, most policy-setting bodies including the Supreme Council for Cyberspace (SCC) and the Iranian Parliament were preoccupied with setting their agenda and priorities for the next year. In their final meetings of the year, both the parliament and SCC indicated that they will continue prioritising the National Information Network.
While the parliament was busy passing next year’s budget, members made no progress with respect to the damaging “User Protection” bill. In the meantime, an international coalition of rights groups published a letter warning of the clear harm that the bill poses to the Internet in Iran. In addition, a couple of major yet short-lived disruptions occurred this month which impacted the entire country while several provinces experienced outages. Our Network Monitor has more details about these disruptions.
Supreme Council remains focused on National Information Network
On March 15 Iran’s highest Internet policy making body, the Supreme Council for Cyberspace, met. The meeting, which was chaired by the Iranian president Ebrahim Raisi, was the last meeting of the council for the Iranian calendar year 1400, and according to reports, the Council agreed that during their next meeting they would prioritize hearing from the ICT Ministry on progress made on the implementation of the National Information Network.
During the Rouhani administration’s term in office, Raisi and those who later became his officials were vocal critics of what they viewed as the slow implementation of the National Information Network. Therefore, it is entirely predictable that the SCC under Raisi’s leadership is focused on discussing the implementation of the National Information Network.
During the meeting, the oppressive User Protection Bill was also discussed, however, the council refrained from taking a position on the bill and stated that legislating is part of parliament’s responsibility. Only a few days before this meeting on March 13 SCC Secretary Abolhassan Firouzabadi made a surprising public intervention in which he said that, given the wide opposition to the bill, pushing it through parliament may not be wise. As the opposition across society against the bill has gained momentum and grown more visible in the past months, it appears that even the SCC is reluctant to lend its full and public support to the bill which is fully in line with its past resolutions and current policy program.
Human Rights Organisations weigh in on Iran’s “User Protection” Bill
On March 17 over 50 human rights and Internet freedom organisations from across the world issued a statement raising concern over the ongoing legislative effort to pass the “User Protection” bill in the Iranian Parliament in Iran. In this statement, signatories including organisations such as the Miaan Group, Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, Access Now, and Article 19 warned that “ the passage of the Bill will result in even further reductions in the availability of international Internet bandwidth in Iran and violate the right to privacy and access to a secure and open Internet.”
The bill was initially passed by a committee of 18 MPs on February 22; however, due to procedural objections from MPs the vote was annulled and has been tabled to be discussed again in the new year.
OpenSea blocks users in Iran citing US Sanctions
On March 3 Decrypt reported that representatives of OpenSea U.S.-based NFT marketplace confirmed that they started blocking users from Iran, citing US sanctions. According to the email “OpenSea blocks users and territories on the U.S. sanctions list from using our services—including buying, selling, or transferring NFTs on OpenSea—and our Terms of Service explicitly prohibit sanctioned users or users in sanctioned territories from using our services. We have a zero tolerance policy for the use of our services by sanctioned individuals or entities and people located in sanctioned countries. If we find individuals to be in violation of our sanctions policy, we take swift action to ban the associated accounts.”
Iranian Internet users have repeatedly experienced being disconnected from global services. This is particularly the case with services that rely on financial transactions. This forced Iranian Internet users to use domestic services which have undoubtedly eased the process of Internet localisation for Iranian authorities.
Although OpenSea and NFT trading are not crucial services for many users inside Iran, this is yet another example of the impact of current sanction regimes on Iranian users’ access to international platforms and services.
Iranian Parliament to Ban cryptocurrency trading platforms
On March 14 Seyed Nasser Mousavi Largani, a member of the Program, Budget and Accounting Commission of the Iranian Parliament said that parliament will bring forward measures to block access to platforms which enable users to trade cryptocurrency.
Iranian officials in recent years have made a number of statements indicating their desire to regulate cryptocurrency trading and the market in the country. Given that a growing number of online platforms allow their members to spend or trade cryptocurrencies, a policy as suggested by Mousavi Largani may have an extensive impact on Iranians’ ability to access international platforms.
Iran’s ICT Minister’s Instagram page temporarily suspended
On March 26 it was reported that the Instagram page of Iran’s ICT Minister Zarepour was suspended by Instagram. Although there has been no clarification as to the reason for this suspension, the page was successfully restored within 24 hours.
Over the past few years, a number of Iranian officials, including the Iranian Supreme Leader, have had their accounts suspended or their posts removed by major global platforms. In most cases, these platforms indicated that the posts violated their terms of service.
Iran’s ICT Minister gifts free domestic Internet
On March 19 Iran’s ICT Minister used his Instagram account to announce that to celebrate the Iranian new year (20 March) for two weeks Iranians will have free Internet allowance to use domestic messaging apps or online video call services. Zarepour explicitly named Gharar, Skyroom, Dana Plus, Soroush Plus, Ita, Gap, iGap, and Baleh as platforms that the users will not need to pay for their Internet usage if they were to use them during the new year holiday.
Iranian officials have consistently used pricing incentives to force Internet users to change their habits and adopt domestic services. Despite the high-level investment, state financial incentives for users, and blocking access to messaging apps such as Telegram and Signal, domestic platforms have not become the preferred service used by most of the Iranian population. Undoubtedly, fear of censorship and surveillance remains the biggest barrier to Iranians opting to use domestic services.
Online ban on contraceptives and birth control items
On March 11 General Vahid Majid the head of Iran Cyber Police (FATA) announced that the distribution, sales or promotion of contraceptive and birth control items online are not permitted and will be met with a response by FATA. Iranian Cyber Police over the past few years has become a significant force in limiting freedom of speech online in Iran. For more information on their human rights abuses in Iran see our FataWatch reports.
Increased budget for Iran’s Cyber Police
On March 7 during the legislative passage of Iran’s annual budget, the Iranian Parliament voted to allocate 2% of profit from financial transactions in Iran to support Iran’s Cyber Police (FATA). This once again demonstrates the important role that Iran’s Cyber Police play in the national strategy to further suppress Iranians rights online.
Over the past years, FATA has bragged about having a significant number of volunteers who have helped them to carry out surveillance of users online. This type of boasting likely indicates that they have increased their capacity to implement further crackdowns on Internet users in Iran in the short term.
Iran’s ICT Minister confirms the process to access users’ domestic messaging apps data
On March 14 speaking to state site IRNA, Iran’s ICT Minister Zarepour said that only in special cases and with a licence from the Judiciary can the data hosted on domestic messaging apps be accessed. Although Zarepour sought to reassure Iranians that their data on domestic messaging apps is safe, given the track record of Iranian officials and arbitrary arrests with the Judiciary’s approval, the confirmation of a process to access users’ data must serve as a warning to the users inside Iran.
Parliament votes to finance the ICT ministry and National Information Network
On March 6 Iranian Parliament voted to allocate 118,063,750 USD in the Iranian budget for the calendar year 1401 toward the development of the National Information Network. Members of the Iranian parliament also voted to increase the Raisi administration’s share of Internet operators’ income by a further 2%.
This increase in income will further empower the ICT Ministry and government (with backing from the Parliament) to accelerate the process of Internet localisation in Iran. Despite recent financial difficulties, Iranian authorities have shown no sign of slowing down their progress on the NIN.
International Internet traffic increasing in Iran
On March 8 Abolhassan Firouzabadi, Secretary of the SCC, claimed that international traffic used by Internet users inside Iran has been increasing by 6 to 7 percent per month. In his remarks, Firouzabadi specifically mentioned WhatsApp and Instagram as popular apps used by Iranians that are contributing to this growth.
Reducing international traffic has always been a defining goal in the development of the National Information Network.
