Iran and Russia Emphasize 'Reducing Monopoly' in Global Internet Management

The Iranian Minister of Communications and Information Technology announced consultations with Russia aimed at what he described as 'reducing the monopoly of internet management in the world' and stated that Iran has agreed to allow the Russian search engine 'Yandex' to have an office in Iran. In a joint press conference with his Russian counterpart on Sunday, November 3, Mahmoud Vaezi said that there are 'many countries' that believe the internet should not be monopolized. Nikolai Nikiforov, the Russian Minister of Communications, also emphasized that the monopoly in the internet and communication technologies has 'turned into a crisis' and that Russia supports competition to break this monopoly. ICANN, which manages the global web, is a non-profit international organization responsible for registering, regulating, and listing internet addresses and pages. This organization has operated independently and has reported its activities to the U.S. Department of Commerce in some cases. The management of the internet has been one of the topics of the 'World Summit on the Information Society,' and some countries have called for collective and participatory management of the internet, but the U.S. has stated that it will prevent the formation of a group under the auspices of the United Nations to control and manage the internet. Iran is obliged to pay a fee to ICANN for launching any new site or re-registering its websites with the .ir domain. Vaezi also mentioned that 'Iran seeks to strengthen its domestic social networks.' He announced that Iran and Russia have agreed for the Russian search engine 'Yandex' to have an office in Iran. Vaezi added: 'We are also ready to cooperate with Russia regarding the Persian language and script through the Yoz and Parsijoo search engines.' 'Yandex' is a Russian IT company that operates the largest search engine in Russia and the eighth largest in the world. The Iranian government has long had a plan to launch Iranian search engines and separate the internet used by domestic users from the global web, claiming it is designed to enhance cybersecurity, combat cyberattacks, and boost online business. However, critics are concerned that, in addition to the low quality of this network, the Iranian government will use its control to further dominate the numerous internet users in Iran. Telegram has filtered its 'immoral sections' for Iran. According to the news agency Mizan, the Minister of Communications and Information Technology stated that the social network Telegram, founded by Russians, has 13 to 14 million users in Iran and is 'operating without restrictions according to the policies of the Ministry of Communications.' Vaezi also reminded that Telegram has been 'warned' and this messaging service has 'filtered its immoral sections for Iran.' He also described the statements of Telegram's founder regarding the filtering of this messaging service in Iran as 'a kind of evasion.' On Wednesday, October 29, Vaezi had called the founder's statements about Iran's request for access to users' information and the filtering of the service in Iran 'clumsiness' and mentioned that his ministry had sent emails to the managers of this messaging service to remove 'immoral sections.' According to Vaezi, at the same time as these emails were sent, Telegram was experiencing disruptions in Iran due to internet issues. Pavel Durov, the founder of Telegram, had previously announced that he rejected Iran's request for cooperation in 'spying on citizens' of the country, and for this reason, the messaging service was 'filtered' in Iran. According to statistics published on specialized websites for applications and smartphones, the messaging application 'Telegram,' which has gained significant popularity in Iran, transmits more than 12 billion messages daily among its users worldwide.