Return of the 'Protection Plan' to the Parliament's Agenda; Final Efforts in the Last Days

With the publication of the Parliament's agenda for this week, it became clear that the plan known as 'Protection', which caused significant controversy and widespread protests a few years ago, has once again been placed on the agenda of the current Parliament's open session in its final days. This plan, originally titled 'Protection of Cyberspace', was later renamed 'Protection of Users' Rights in Cyberspace and Regulation of Social Messengers', and its supporters refer to it as the 'User Rights Protection Plan' or 'Radio Communications Regulation Plan'. In September 2022, Mohammad Saleh Jokar, the then-head of the Internal Affairs Commission of the Islamic Consultative Assembly, told the 'Rouydad24' website that the controversial plan to further reduce users' access to the internet, known as 'Protection', was no longer 'on the Parliament's agenda' and had been handed over to the 'Supreme Council of Cyberspace'. Jokar stated that the 'Protection Plan' is considered a completed plan by the Islamic Consultative Assembly, adding that the 'first and last decision' regarding the Protection Plan would be made by the 'Supreme Council of Cyberspace'. Iranian media and some social media users reported on September 5, 2022, that the 'Supreme Council of Cyberspace', chaired by Ebrahim Raisi, had approved part of the so-called Protection Plan (based on the version from February 9, named the Regulatory System). The 'Supreme Council of Cyberspace' was established on March 7, 2012, by the order of Ali Khamenei, the Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic of Iran, with the aim of 'organizing and managing developments in cyberspace' and to exert more control and oversight over this space, consisting of two groups of legal and real members. At that time, Gholamreza Noori Ghazaljeh, another member of the Islamic Consultative Assembly, on August 7, 2022, referring to the referral of the so-called 'Protection of Users in Cyberspace' plan to the 'Supreme Council of Cyberspace' by Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf, the Speaker of the Islamic Consultative Assembly, told the 'Gharne No' website that this plan would not reach a conclusion 'wherever it is examined, because it lacks a proper conceptual framework.' Concurrently with nationwide protests in Iran, Hassan Norouzi, a member of Parliament, announced on February 6, 2023, that this plan had been approved in a joint committee and would soon be sent to the Guardian Council. Rouhollah Momen Nasab, one of the supporters of the 'Protection' plan, defended this plan in September 2022, emphasizing the necessity of internet oversight and management, stating: 'Those who sell VPNs so that others can watch pornographic films should be executed as corrupt on earth so that others will behave themselves.' The newspaper 'Etemad' also reported in February 2023, analyzing the remarks of 'Morteza Aghatehrani', the head of the Cultural Commission of Parliament and the head of the Central Council of the Stability Front, as well as statements from the Minister of Communications, about the Stability Front's efforts to legalize the 'Protection Plan'. The author of the article pointed out that despite the suspension of the Protection Plan in Parliament, its generalities are practically being implemented in society these days. However, the newspaper 'Ham Mihan' wrote on September 1, 2023: 'The Parliament, which still has the approval of the Protection Plan on the agenda of the special commission of Article 85, has been looking to restrict access to the internet since the early days and occasionally raises news about its approval by this commission and sending it to the Guardian Council, but no official news has been announced about it yet, and it seems that due to the upcoming elections, the current representatives of Parliament are refraining from reintroducing and determining the fate of this plan.' It seems that until the end of the parliamentary elections and the determination of the composition of future representatives, who will officially start their activities on June 27, the current Parliament intends to finalize this controversial plan before the end of its term.