The Supreme Council of Cyberspace, attended by the heads of the three branches of power and senior military and security commanders of the Iranian regime, held a meeting and passed a resolution that paves the way for further internet restrictions on citizens. At the same time, Mohammad Reza Aref, the regime’s first vice president, called for the rapid launch of a national internet and the strengthening of domestic messaging platforms.
On the evening of Tuesday, July 15, the Supreme Council of Cyberspace approved the executive regulations of the Committee for Facilitating Digital Businesses.
Internet Censorship in Iran Has Turned Into a Billion-Dollar Business For State Actors
This committee was established in February 2025 under the administration of Masoud Pezeshkian, president of the Iranian regime, and now its regulations have been formally approved. Amir Sayyah, acting head of the Economic and Regulatory Affairs Department at the National Cyberspace Center, announced that the committee intends to unblock IP access for “certain businesses”—a move seen as a step toward implementing class-based internet.
The term “class-based internet” refers to the regime granting specific groups privileged access to the internet, while the general public is denied that level of connectivity.
This practice began during the presidency of Hassan Rouhani when Mohammad Javad Azari Jahromi, a former Minister of Communications, granted unfiltered internet access to some journalists aligned with the government.
During the November 2019 protests, while internet access was cut off for the general public, some journalists and political figures remained online from within Iran, using social media—especially Twitter/X—to amplify the regime’s narrative of the unrest. These included labeling the protesters as “store looters” or calling the demonstrations a “hunger revolt.” A similar pattern emerged during the IRGC’s downing of a Ukrainian airliner in January 2020.
#Iran’s Digital Apartheid: Regime Loyalists Flood the #Internet While the Rest of the Nation Goes Darkhttps://t.co/qFQw7Bi9wc
— NCRI-FAC (@iran_policy) June 20, 2025
In this context, Fatemeh Mohajerani, spokesperson for the Pezeshkian administration, announced that the government intends to allocate “freer internet” to journalists. However, even before this, some journalists within the regime were already granted such access upon request and with government approval.
According to the tech website Digiato, “It appears that under the fourteenth government, the class-based internet plan… is being implemented on a broader scale.”
On the other hand, Aref called for the swift launch of the national internet and emphasized the need to strengthen domestic messaging apps. He said: “We must reassure domestic users that the National Information Network meets their needs in a secure environment.”
Mohajerani also stated: “The reason for the multi-day internet outage during the war with Israel was the launch of the national internet.” Referring to the 12-day war with Israel, Aref said: “This was a war of technologies and soft power, and we must seriously assess our performance in this area.”
The “national intranet” project has long been a key goal of the Iranian regime, with Ali Khamenei, the regime’s supreme leader, emphasizing its implementation since the presidency of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and the first term of Hassan Rouhani.
Its serious implementation began under Azari Jahromi’s tenure as communications minister and advanced considerably during Rouhani’s second term. Now, following the end of the 12-day war, the Pezeshkian administration is pushing forward with a project that was aggressively initiated under Rouhani.
