Iran’s seventh development plan bill outlines various infrastructure projects for different sectors of the country, to be carried out over five years (from 2023 through 2027). This plan has not yet been approved by the parliament, and its discussion was planned for September 25, but no update has been reported since then.
A significant portion of this plan is dedicated to communication and digital infrastructures. This section aims to increase the coverage of the national information network and to store all data locally (as a way to restrict users and cut off their access to the internet), as well as to establish integrated systems for identity verification and information sharing among government agencies (using the biometric data of citizens).
As per the plan, the data from these systems is intended to be shared with all governmental agencies through a unified center named the ‘National Information Exchange Center‘, on the platform of the National Information Network (National Internet).
In addition, this bill anticipates programs for monitoring and recording data related to users’ daily lives (in a system named ‘Lifestyle Assessment System’). The information from this system will also be accessible to all governmental bodies via the National Information Portal.
The Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance, in collaboration with the Statistical Center of Iran, is set to establish this system (referred to as the ‘Lifestyle Assessment System’), and all executive agencies are to continuously, fully, and online record their data on it.
This information includes living conditions, health status, the transit of personal and public vehicles, judicial status, and administrative activities (meaning any action that requires a signature in governmental offices). The stated purpose of its establishment is to “facilitate the lives of citizens.”
The government plans to collect and store all these sensitive data in a central hub, without any legal protection for data preservation. This raises the risk of security and judicial agencies accessing citizens’ data without following any legal process, and endangering citizens’ security and privacy.
Moreover, the government intends to regulate and censor audio and visual content (on both public and private online platforms), increasing the level of censorship and restrictions in Iran compared to before.
The following report analyzes these legal plans in detail.
National Internet: A Digital Infrastructure for Surveillance of Citizens
The National Internet, or the National Information Network, is a platform where all governmental systems share their information. It also hosts local services such as banks, daily services and websites. However, when the international internet is cut off, the internal network becomes unstable and unable to provide many services.
The National Information Network is expected to progress up to 99% by the end of the seventh development plan, which is the year 2026. This plan assigns different tasks to different government organizations and agencies.
The Ministry of Communications is obligated under this plan to provide access to the National Information Network to connect 20 million households, including 99% of villages with more than 20 households and all cities, to the National Information Network through fiber optic cables.
According to Article 65 Clause ‘b’ of the plan, the Ministry of Communications, with the assistance of the Standard Organization and the Ministry of Roads and Urban Development, should plan a structure for smartening buildings using the ‘fiber (optic), radio, and network’ system.
Digital Economy Document
Among the responsibilities assigned to the Ministry of Communications is the creation of a national document for the development of the country’s digital economy. In Article 66 of the transformation plan, it is mentioned that the ultimate goal of the said document is to increase the share of the digital economy in Iran’s Gross National Product to 15%.
The national document should be formulated with the participation of the Ministries of Communications, Economy, and Industry, Mining and Trade (IMT), as well as the Vice Presidency for Science and Technology. Its structure should be shaped in accordance with the “Strategic Document of the Supreme Council in Cyberspace.”
The “Strategic Document of the Islamic Republic in Cyberspace” delineates the responsibilities of various governmental bodies regarding the internet and has empowered military and security organizations to oversee the internet. A review of the Strategic Document for Cyberspace indicates that numerous plans have been devised to limit access to the Internet.
In clause ‘c’ of the same article, all executive agencies in Iran are required to develop their own digital transformation and digital economy plans and implement them on a cloud-based platform.
In clause ‘b’ of Article 66 of the transformation plan, the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology is obligated to work with the private sector and its subordinate organizations to provide the infrastructure for the digital economy in terms of cloud services, data storage, and rapid processing.
Establishing an informational network of user data on internal cloud systems is a plan the government needs to expand the National Information Network. This way, the government can cut off users’ access to the global internet when needed, claiming that the necessary services are available on the internal network.
Clause ‘d’ of the same article obligates ministries related to education (Science, Labor, Education and Health) to collaborate with the Ministry of Communications to provide educational programs for training human resources to work in the field of the digital economy and to establish a curriculum for its growth.
In this context, the government is currently pursuing various programs to train and standardize human resources for its purposes, such as in content production structures.
Article 66, Clause ‘e’ of the seventh development plan requires the Statistical Center of Iran to work with the Ministries of IMT and Communications to create and update a program called “The System for Measuring the Contribution of the Digital Economy Ecosystem in the Country’s Overall Added Value.”
This system is supposed to provide current statistics and increase transparency, but the Iranian government has a history of presenting unreliable statistics that do not match reality. For example, the official statistics on inflation and economic issues are different from what people experience, and the statistics on internet speed and quality, or the number of messaging app users, are not consistent with what people see.
The government has also made bandwidth, a statistic that used to be public, classified and inaccessible. In this situation, introducing systems like the one mentioned above can lead to ambiguous data, biased reports, and unfair allocation of budget or resources based on these data.
Article 66, Clause ‘f’ obliges the Ministry of Communications to share its data and information with businesses while respecting security and privacy, according to the law on the management of national data and information. The price for providing this information is set by the regulatory body, which is a part of the Ministry of Communications.
Electronic Government
The seventh development plan document requires all government agencies to store their data on a single cloud center (Article 107, Clause a’). The Ministry of Communications is in charge of creating this smart cloud infrastructure for government systems and providing data backup for them.
The document also aims to create shared systems and data between ministries, which the Ministry of Communications has to implement. Moreover, the Ministry of Communications has the authority to issue permits for new government systems. (Note 1, Clause 107).
However, electronic government services are not always beneficial. According to Filterwatch, these services have become a way of violating the privacy of Iranian citizens.
Data Integration
The seventh development plan bill proposes various systems to integrate user information in different fields, such as judiciary, health, housing, civil registration, imported products tracking (for medical and electronic devices), vehicle navigation on the roads, and business licensing in the country (National Licensing Portal).
Numerous agencies and ministries have been tasked with establishing these systems, but all of them are based on the National Information Network. Most of these systems store their data on a center called the ‘National Central Information Exchange Portal’ and share it with all government agencies.
One of the most controversial parts of this plan is the system that aims to record the “lifestyle of citizens” continuously and persistently. In this section, we will examine this system and other systems that collect and share user data.
Monitoring and Measuring People’s Lifestyle
Article 75, Clause ‘b’ of the seventh development plan requires the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance to work with the Statistical Center of Iran and under the supervision of the Monitoring Center of the Supreme Council of the Cultural Revolution, to collect the necessary statistical information to study the ‘lifestyle of the Iranian society’. They have to create a system called ‘System for Continuous Observation and Measurement of People’s Lifestyle’.
This system seems plausible considering the various systems that target every aspect of Iranians’ lives. We will discuss the details of these systems in the following sections of this article.
National Licensing Portal
Article 4, Clause ‘a’ of the seventh development plan states that all businesses need to get their licenses from professional bodies, unions, organizations of free trade zones, and special economic zones through the National Licensing Portal. The government wants all online businesses to use this portal to get their licenses. The government also gives tax benefits and faster licensing to businesses that use domestic platforms.
Filterwatch’s research shows that the Iranian government has used the death of Mahsa Amini and the following internet restrictions that caused many online businesses to close, many workers to lose their jobs, and many revenues to drop, as an excuse to push these businesses to move to domestic platforms and pay taxes to them.
Now, we are witnessing that this policy has been formalized as an established law in the development plan.
Monitoring Vehicle Navigation on Roads Using Artificial Intelligence
Article 59, Clause ‘a’ of the Seventh Development Plan gives the Ministry of Roads and Urban Development the power to monitor the movement of ‘all vehicles’ on all roads in Iran online using smart tools and to charge them based on the distance they have traveled. The system is supposed to collect fees from vehicles according to their type and distance.
However, this system could also be used for other purposes, such as imposing penalties on vehicles that belong to people who have unpaid fines or debts. It could also give the government more control and surveillance over vehicles and people during critical situations or protests.
Censorship of Audio and Visual Content
The Seventh Development Plan gives three entities a significant role in censoring audio and visual content in Iran: the Ministries of Communications, Guidance, and the Broadcasting Organization, which are all under the supervision of Iran’s leader.
The plan requires the Ministry of Communications to make the Broadcasting Organization’s programs available nationwide, using the National Information Network infrastructure (Article 77, Clause ‘b’).
As aforementioned, the plan also aims to connect 20 million households to the National Information Network, which is separate from the internet, and complete it by 99 percent.
At the same time, the plan assigns the Broadcasting Authority as the regulator for ‘ubiquitous audio and visual media’, which includes user-centric and publisher-centric media, home display networks, and advertisements on this network (Article 67, Clause ‘b’). This encompasses ‘user-centric’ and ‘publisher-centric’ media, home display networks (including TV series, television programs, and the like), and even the advertisements and commercials on this network.
This is problematic for two reasons. First, there is no clear legal definition for ‘ubiquitous audio and visual media’, and there is a disagreement among experts in this field. Second,
the Broadcasting Authority has a conflict of interest with video streaming platforms, and it cannot be a fair regulator for this domain. This approach could lower the quality of content on video platforms to the level of the Broadcasting Authority, which has a questionable record of attracting viewers.
The plan also entrusts the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance with the regulation, licensing, and supervision of news agencies, print media, books, computer games, advertisements, and their likes (Article 76, Clause ‘a’). This means that the gaming and news sectors will also be under the influence and control of the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance.
The plan also encourages some websites and games to provide services on the National Information Network, and offers users a half-price discount on their domestic traffic consumption. This is an attempt to attract users to the National Information Network, but it also violates the principle of network neutrality by providing discriminatory internet content to users.
Development of the security system in collaboration with the Ministry of Intelligence and Information
The seventh development plan has two major programs to improve the cyber defense system: training interns and introducing a comprehensive plan for developing soft defense and cyber capabilities to counter soft warfare.
The plan requires the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Islamic Republic of Iran, the Ministries of Information, Communications and Information Technology, and Defense and Support of the Armed Forces to prepare and approve a comprehensive plan for developing soft defense and cyber capabilities and countering soft warfare, under the supervision of the Supreme Council of Cyberspace (Article 102, Clause ‘c’).
Clause ‘b’ of Article 103 also mandates the Ministry of Communications, in collaboration with the Ministry of Information, to utilize ‘security frameworks that have been accredited for the provision of cyber security services to government and non-government sectors.
Clause ‘a’ of the same article obligates the Ministry of Communications, in collaboration with companies licensed by the Strategic Management Center under the Presidency and the Information Technology Organization of Iran, to plan and implement a cyber-security service provision program for government executive bodies.
The plan also addresses the issue of finding and training qualified personnel for the cyber defense system. The Iranian digital ecosystem faces a shortage of skilled professionals due to the emigration of experts in recent years. This affects not only startups but also government and security sectors. The government also needs loyal forces that are ideologically and security-wise desirable for its suppression-oriented projects, such as identifying people who do not follow the dress code. The plan aims to identify, train, and monitor their status.
