TEHRAN: A recent regulatory directive issued by Iran’s principal internet governing body highlights the authorities’ aim to steer Iranians away from foreign social media platforms in favor of domestic ones.
The directive, unveiled by Iran’s top internet policymaking body earlier this week, introduces new rules that could significantly impact the country’s already restricted internet environment. The agency claims that these rules, endorsed by Supreme Leader Ali Hosseini Khamenei, are aimed at refining Iran’s online landscape.
The Supreme Council of Cyberspace (SCC) has explicitly prohibited the use of “refinement-breaking tools” unless users have obtained legal authorization. This term refers to virtual private networks (VPNs), essential online privacy tools used by most Iranians to bypass stringent internet controls.
Despite the widespread ban on major social media platforms like Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, and Telegram, along with numerous websites, they remain immensely popular among millions of Iranian users. Consequently, VPNs have been a lifeline for accessing unrestricted internet content. The recent announcement of banning VPN usage, even without commercial transactions, sparked significant backlash online.
Critics argue that the majority of Iranians depend on VPNs to access the open internet, implying that outlawing their use would affect a vast portion of the population.
However, SCC Secretary Mohammad Amin Aghamiri clarified in a televised statement that the regulations primarily target top state entities, such as the office of the supreme leader, the presidency, the judiciary, and the parliament, rather than the general public.
Notwithstanding the specifics of the VPN ban, the SCC directive includes provisions aimed at reshaping Iran’s internet landscape on a larger scale. Notably, it tasks the culture ministry with collaborating with the economy and information and communications technology (ICT) ministries to develop a plan within one month. This plan is intended to incentivize content creators and businesses operating on foreign platforms to transition exclusively to local ones. The objective is to migrate at least half of the target audience to domestic platforms within six months.
Effectively, this directive signals a desire to relocate much of the content produced by Iranians on popular platforms like Instagram and YouTube to local alternatives. However, the feasibility of achieving such a transition within a short timeframe remains uncertain.
