Iran’s Parliament Orders Communications Ministry to Launch ‘National Information Network’ by End of 2021
Iran’s Parliament on Wednesday, March 4, 2021, obligated the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology to launch the “National Information Network” by the end of 2021.
For years, the Iranian government has sought to implement a plan to separate the domestic internet (intranet) from the global internet under the pretext of a “national network” citing security reasons. This process intensified following the November 2019 protests.
Parliament’s recent decision was made as part of reviewing the 2021 budget.
According to this resolution, the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology “must, within the requirements of the Supreme Council of Cyberspace and strategic oversight of the National Center of Cyberspace, implement the National Information Network by the end of 2021 under the supervision of the National Center of Cyberspace”.
AlirezA Salimi, a parliament representative and designer of this proposal in the Industrial Commission, stated that “based on the sixth development plan law, the Ministry of Communications was obliged to take action to launch a secure and sustainable national information network, but this law has not been implemented”.
As the Research Center of Iran’s Parliament estimated in April 2021, approximately 19 trillion tomans have been spent creating a national internet until last year.
The issue of “national internet” in Iran began when Mahmoud Ahmadinejad came to power and was later pursued by the Ministry of Communications under the name “National Internet Network”.
Cyberspace experts refer to this plan, currently known as the “National Information Network,” as the “switch to disconnect from the global internet”.
Source: Radio Farda
