requiring Internet cafes to collect detailed information on their clients.
Iran has been planning to launch its own national Internet system, designed to limit access to foreign websites – among them the already-filtered Facebook, YouTube and Twitter – and to restrict the influence of foreign cultures in Iranian society.
“We can describe it as a genuinely ‘halal’ network aimed at Muslims on an ethical and moral level,” said Deputy Economy Minister Ali-Agha Mohammadi.
The idea has apparently been in the works since the demonstrations in the wake of the 2009 elections, when Iranian activists were able to use Twitter and YouTube to broadcast updates and iconic images and footage of the protests, including those of police brutality. The use of social networking websites such as Facebook and Twitter by Egyptian protestors has further highlighted the crucial role of these technologies in organizing grassroots movements.
The “halal” Internet is believed to function as a national intranet and will not, according to Iranian authorities, completely shut off Iran from the rest of the world.
“The intranet will not replace the Internet; the Internet will continue to exist in our communications, but the main communications will be on the national information network and, on this network, using the Internet will be unnecessary for many communications,” Reza Taqipur, minister of communications and information technology, said Sunday.
But Iranian IT expert Payam Karbasi, spokesman for Corporate Computer Systems of Iran, explained the new project a bit differently:
“With the launch of the national Internet, the Internet providers can increase the speed of access to their desired websites by two megabytes…however, it will be just like a corporate network, which cannot be accessed by outsiders, and some [outside] material cannot be accessed through that network.”
This goes beyond just the censorship of certain websites, raising fears that Iranian Internet users could be virtually cut off from the rest of the world.
Exactly how much connectivity Iranians will have with the Internet and under what conditions remains to be seen.
While the national intranet is scheduled to launch soon after Now Ruz on March 20, it is being preceded by tight new rules that require Internet café owners to log the browsing history of their clients in addition to recording each user’s name, father’s name, national ID number, postal code and telephone number. The cafes, which are required to keep this information for six months, have also been ordered to install closed-circuit cameras to record their users’ faces.
Predictably, the café owners—who have been given a 15-day ultimatum from January 3 to buy their new cameras—are unhappy with the new rules.
“Do they think I’m running a security shop, to ask people for their ID number and put a guard above their head to monitor their web activity? Are they insane?” said a disgruntled Internet café owner in Tehran.
The Iranian authorities explained that the rationale for these requirements is to promote transparency, a popular if hollow term in the Islamic Republic.
“These rules are aimed at promoting transparency and organization for Internet business and offer more protection against online abuse,” said the text of the new regulations, which also outlaw the use of circumvention tools that allow users to access banned websites.
But the regulations come at an opportune moment for the government, coinciding with the campaign run-up to the March 2 Majlis elections. And that has enraged activists, who watched the successful use of social networking websites by Egyptian activists.
“They are closing in on us, and we are already feeling the dire impact of these announcements. Everyone is afraid,” a prominent student activist told The Wall Street Journal. “It will make it very difficult for us to tell the world what’s happening here.”
Iran is already censoring some of the world’s most popular social networking websites and is even blocking some of the popular proxy-avoidance software, making it increasingly difficult for Iranians to use the Internet freely.
Iranian authorities have also decreased Internet speeds to a crawl, presumably as a way to restrict access to the outside world.
Some have attributed the slowness of the Internet in the past few weeks to the government’s work on the new national intranet. But the government disagrees. “The fall in Internet speed in the country was a passing thing and the problem has been solved now,” said Communications Minister Taqipur.
“The ministry is trying to increase Internet speed in the country several-fold by launching this [national intranet] network,” he said.
Regardless of what has caused the recent slowdown, there are religious justifications floating around about the censorship of websites like Facebook.
Ayatollah Lotfollah Safi-Golpaygani’s answer to a follower’s question, broadcast on national television, made the case this way: “Basically, going to any website which propagates immoralities and could weaken the religious belief is un-Islamic and not allowed, and membership in it is therefore haram [forbidden],” he said. “Only the use of websites propagating religious criteria and not leading to any kind of ethical immoralities is of no problem.”
In recent weeks, when most other websites were virtually inaccessible due to the slow Internet speed, all government websites were easily accessible.
But beyond the notions of haram [forbidden] and halal [permitted], Iran argues it has practical reasons for the new national intranet project. An Iranian cyber security expert told Britain’s Guardian on condition of anonymity:
“Despite what others think, intranet is not primarily aimed at curbing the global Internet but Iran is creating it to secure its own military, banking and sensitive data from the outside world. Iran has fears of an outside cyber attack like that of the Stuxnet, and is trying to protect its sensitive data from being accessible on the World Wide Web.”
But computer security specialists say that is nonsense and the national intranet won’t provide any security at all from sophisticated foreign hackers. The question is how much security it gives the regime by isolating Iranians from the outside world and monitoring their contacts with one another.