Posted on 10/31/2020 6:17:47 AM PDT by Irannewswire
A few weeks after the National Information Network (intranet) plan was confirmed by Iran’s Supreme Council of Cyberspace, parts of it were published by the state-run Mehr News Agency.
The National Information Network’s “master engineering design” was approved on September 15 by Iran’s Supreme Council of Cyberspace (ISCC) after it was confirmed by the regime’s Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei.
What is the National Information Network? The Iranian regime has spent years pursuing a plan to build a domestic intranet separate from the global internet for security and censorship purposes called the “National Network.”
Proposed in 2005, the National Information Network (NIN) is an ongoing project to develop an infrastructure intranet network. The “master engineering design” was signed by Hassan Rouhani in September.
According to Mehr, the purpose of the “national” network is to “reduce dependency and prevent foreign access to Iran’s cyberspace”.
The news agency also said the NIN would create an environment that would be “in accordance with Iran’s Islamic culture”. The plan includes software services, as well as infrastructure objectives.
The services will include a “national” intranet search engine, messenger, social media platforms, internal email system, user registration and a domestic operating system. An operating system for smartphones with the goal of obtaining at least 20% of the smartphone market has been included in the “master engineering design” according to the report.
It will also include system “enhancements” in Iran’s security, law enforcement and judicial institutions to “identify” and deal with crimes and violations in cyberspace, with an annual goal of 25% crime reduction.
NIN budget
Only in one instance, Iran’s Minister of Information and Communications Technology, Mohammad-Javad Azari Jahromi, previously announced that over 100,000 billion tomans were spent on the NIN infrastructure.
This is 26 times the Ministry of Information and Communication’s budget and 66 times more than the Ministry of Cultural Heritage, Handicrafts and Tourism budget in one year.
In April 2019, the Research Center of the Islamic Consultative Assembly estimated that about 190 trillion rials (approximately $4.5 billion) had been spent on creating the intranet last year.
This is while the state-run ILNA News Agency reported today that over 90% of villages in Iran don’t have any access to the internet. Official figures published in October showed that half of Iran’s population are living in absolute poverty.
Iran’s cyber freedom
Human rights organizations have expressed concern over the National Information Network plan, saying that Iranians will be denied freedom of information. They say the main goal of the NIN is to cutoff Iranians from the world.
Last year, during November 2019 nationwide protests, the Iranian regime implemented a 3-day internet blackout to suppress protesters and hide the scope of the crackdown.
On October 8, the regime created internet disruptions in Tehran when Iranians who had gathered to pay their respects to legendary singer and musician Mohammad-Reza Shajarian chanted “death to the dictator” echoing the iconic singer’s chant during 2009 protests.
On October 15, two Telegram administrators were arrested in Ardabil, northwestern Iran, for “insulting” officials.
According to a new report by Freedom House, the application of national sovereignty to cyberspace is a tactic used by autocratic governments. It has given them “free rein to crackdown on human rights while ignoring objections from local civil society and the international community.”
The report said that Iran’s government cut off connections to hide the police’s violent response to mass protests in late 2019 adding that this was “an ultimate expression of contempt for freedoms of association and assembly, as well as for the right to access information.”
This will be like when your mom comes home with generic “Wheatys” instead of Wheaties.
I get the feeling it just isn’t going to cut it for the Iranian people.
Persians deserve better. Chinese deserve better.
If you like your civilization you can keep your civilization...until TOTALITARIANS take it over.
That’s old school 20th Century censorship right there.
I would expect an 8th Century mindset to revel in limiting the free speech of their subjects.
America is not, and shall not, succumb to such outdated modes of thought!
“That’s old school 20th Century censorship right there.”
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Lol. Iranians can get a lot to learn from America about 21th century censorship.
China has historically lived only under totalitarian regimes of one stripe or another
The mullahs are completely paranoid about losing power. Not because of protests, freedom of speech etc., but because of their fear that we can shut down their individual finances.
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Anytime we want we can shut down their ATMs, debit/credit cards, online buying, etc. Lights out on all financial transactions.
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There would be civil war. Iranians love their card purchasing and direct deposit. The Iranian Rial is not trusted. That’s what this intranet could do, allow the mullahs to control everyone’s spending and savings.
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