The specter of an Internet cut off from the world, with the establishment of the “national information network” (RNI), haunts Iranian Internet users as the presidential election approaches on June 18. Analysts estimate that in the event of demonstrations during the electoral campaign or when the results are announced, the authorities in Tehran are able to cut off access to the World Wide Web for Iranian users (at least 71% of the 83 million inhabitants), without affecting daily life. These fears are all the more acute as the Supreme Guide, Ali Khamenei, called for more control of the Web. “We are proud to leave the virtual space [sans surveillance]. We are wrong. This tool must not be made available to the enemy ”, he said on March 20 in a speech on the occasion of the Iranian New Year.
“Blessed bread” for the diet
The implementation of the RNI project, launched in 2012, has been accelerated in recent years, with the design of Iranian applications, search engines, messaging services and websites, mostly copied from foreign models. Iranian websites hosted abroad have been forced to relocate to the country. All data is stored on servers in Iran, which allows the authorities to have full access, if necessary, at the risk of the safety of Internet users in a country where anyone can be prosecuted and sentenced to long terms of prison for its activities on the Web.
The American sanctions, imposed during Donald Trump’s presidency (2017-2021), have greatly facilitated the task of the Iranian authorities to promote their intranet project. Since 2017, many services provided by American companies like Amazon, Google and Microsoft are unavailable to Iranian internet users. And the Iranians do not have the ability to transact internationally, with foreign banks refusing to accept their payments for fear of being pinned down by Washington. “In this context, it is normal that the Iranians turn to the services offered by Tehran, laments Amir Rashidi, an Iranian researcher specializing in computer security and digital rights who lives in the United States. Trump’s “maximum pressure” policy has pushed the Iranians into the arms of the regime. It is blessed bread for him! “
Already, under the mandate of the ultra-conservative Mahmoud Ahmadinejad (2005-2013), Internet censorship was exercised against social networks such as YouTube, Twitter and Facebook, political sites and those containing banned words relating in particular to to sexuality. But, this censorship could be circumvented by the use of software such as virtual private networks (VPN) and proxies. Hence the efforts made since to set up a national Internet – intranet – the effectiveness of which has already been tested five times since 2018, when Iran cut off access to the Internet for the first time. ‘Global Internet.
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