Whispers of Transferring Iran's Internet Gateway to the Military

A member of the Cultural Commission of the Islamic Consultative Assembly states that due to the lack of trust among the Iranian people towards domestic messaging apps, the proposal to revoke the government's control over the internet gateway and transfer internet servers to the armed forces poses another challenge and puts the military 'against' the people. Mehdi Sheikh expressed hope in an interview with the Jamaran website that the armed forces of the Islamic Republic would not involve themselves in 'disputes that have nothing to do with them.' His reference is to the proposal 'to hand over the internet gateway to the armed forces,' which has been presented to the commission by Nasrollah Pejmanfar, another member of the Cultural Commission, but has not yet been reviewed. According to the information in this proposal, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, police, and the Passive Defense Organization are designated as effective members of the supervisory board for the activities of domestic and foreign messaging apps. Sheikh deemed it 'unlikely' that parliament members would vote positively on such a proposal and generally considered the transfer of internet servers to the armed forces to have a 'bad outcome.' He explicitly stated: 'One of our biggest problems is that we cannot build trust for people to refer to domestic messaging apps; because they still do not trust that their information will not be used for security purposes.' This representative expressed hope that the government would not 'bow to this issue' and considered it a request from 'a few' unspecified individuals. He stated, 'These servers are currently where they should be,' and given the 'efforts' to position the armed forces against the people in economic discussions, 'there is a fear that raising these issues will put the people against the armed forces. Thus, this is a very negative proposal.' So far, the Ministry of Communications has not announced its official opinion on this matter. However, Hamid Fattahi, Deputy Minister of Communications and Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Communications Infrastructure Company, reacted to this issue on his Twitter page. He wrote: 'Regarding the proposal to revoke the government's control over the internet gateway, the Ministry of Communications has stated its legal and technical objections in meetings.' What is the content of the proposal? The proposal to separate the management of the international gateway (internet) from the government is seen in Article 12 of the 'Regulation of Social Messaging Apps' proposal, which is also being reviewed in the virtual space working group of the Cultural Commission of the parliament. Article 12 of this proposal states: 'Digital border control and cyber defense of the country and preventing unauthorized exploitation of virtual data at the entry and exit gateways of bandwidth will be carried out by relevant authorities, centered around the General Staff of the Armed Forces. The boundaries will be approved by the Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces based on the proposal of the General Staff.' Article 27 of this proposal states: 'Individuals who create and launch social messaging apps without registration approval and provide services in violation of blocking measures or facilitate illegal violations of blocking measures will be sentenced to 2 to 6 years in prison.' Article 29 of the mentioned proposal also adds that 'effective activity in foreign and domestic social messaging apps, such as creating channels and groups without permission, is prohibited.' For individuals who create or manage channels and groups in violation of illegal blocking measures, imprisonment or fines are considered. Another item seen in Chapter Three supporting social messaging apps is the installation of effective domestic messaging apps on mobile phones imported into the country. Article 24 of the proposal states that the issuance of import and activation permits for mobile phones is contingent upon the prior installation of effective domestic messaging apps as determined by the supervisory board. Reasons for opposition to this proposal: giving an excuse to the US to sanction Iran's internet. Ehsan Ghazizadeh Hashemi, the head of the parliament's virtual space faction, announced the existence of this faction with 71 members and stated that the parliament does not have a proposal to transfer internet infrastructure and virtual space to the armed forces. According to the 'House of the Nation' website, Ghazizadeh Hashemi said in a press conference on Tuesday (October 23) that 'such a proposal is not currently under discussion in the parliament, although there has been a discussion regarding frequency space in the country.' Hamid Fattahi, Deputy Minister of Communications and Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Communications Infrastructure Company, also reacted to this proposal on his Twitter, stating that transferring internet management to a military entity creates 'monopolization.' Fattahi wrote that regarding the proposal to revoke the government's control over the internet gateway, the Ministry of Communications has stated its legal and technical objections in meetings. He added, 'With respect to the dignity of the legislative authority of the parliament, we will execute the law, but monopolization should not occur at a time when we are looking to eliminate monopolies and strengthen the resistant economy.' Reza Iyazi, a legal advisor in the field of communications and information technology, also opposed this article and told the 'Peyvast' website that 'reviewing such a proposal in the parliament is not in the country's interest.' Iyazi added, 'When control over internet entry to the country is given to a military entity, we have given the US an excuse to impose sanctions on us in the internet sector as well.' He stated, 'Reviewing such a proposal in the parliament has no benefit for the country, and if this proposal is implemented, it will also jeopardize the future work of the Ministry of Communications.'