AFP, published Sunday, May 14, 2023 at 06:23
Millions of Iranian netizens are being pushed to use local messengers like Ita and Rubika, replacing giants WhatsApp and Instagram, victims of drastic internet restrictions.
Iranians are no exception when it comes to spending hours surfing and expressing themselves on social media platforms.
But in recent months they have had to adapt as authorities blocked access to Instagram and WhatsApp, the country’s most popular foreign platforms, following the start of the protest movement sparked by Mahsa Amini’s death in custody in mid-September.
Millions of people then turned to social media to react to the young girl’s death, and the state introduced a series of unprecedented filters and restrictions, denouncing “actions by counter-revolutionaries via social media”.
In particular, the government has blocked access to VPNs (Virtual Private Networks), used by millions of people, but also by a great many companies, for a more or less long period of time.
At the same time, he encouraged internet users to switch to Iranian applications that benefit from state support.
Around 89 million internet users use one of the four main players in the industry (Ita, Rubika, Bale and Soroush) “at least once a month”, according to figures published by Telecoms Minister Issa Zarepour at the end of April.
Mr Zarepour, who does not have an account on any of the foreign platforms, warned that WhatsApp and Instagram would only be allowed to function again if they had a legal representative in the country.
But Meta, the parent company of Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, has said it has no plans to open an office in Iran.
– “If my VPN allows it” –
To attract internet users, the government has started moving some administrative services online to national platforms.
While they’re concerned about security and privacy issues, “users have needs” that drive them to use them, says Amir Rashidi, a New York-based digital security expert.
“If you were Iranian, what would you do if you could only enroll in university with one of these apps?” he asks.
Keikhosrow Heydari-Nejat, a 23-year-old developer, says he’s required these platforms to “use government-provided services that only work on them.” But “I only installed it on the phone that I don’t use every day,” he says, regretting that there’s no “clear privacy policy.”
Mansour Roghani, 65, a retired city worker, admits he doesn’t need local applications. “The topics that interest me and the friends I communicate with do not take place on Iranian platforms,” he explains. So “I use Telegram and WhatsApp instead, and if my VPN allows it, I check Instagram.”
To speed up the transition, the Ministry of Telecommunications has linked four national platforms, allowing their users to communicate with each other.
“The government is trying to connect these applications to reach a maximum number of users,” stresses Amir Rashidi, noting that they will benefit from “financial and technical support”.
The overall goal of the authorities is to complete the national Internet network – the NIN (National Information Network) – which is about 60% complete. Ultimately, it should enable national platforms to function even when access to the global network is not possible, according to Mr. Zarepour.
When this reconfiguration is complete, the government will be able to “expose the internet at a lower cost,” Ali Rashidi predicts.
For the government, beyond internal control, it is about protecting itself from foreign cyberattacks that have plagued Iran over the past few decades.