Have the president’s orders to review the filtering policies been fruitful?

The vice president once again spoke about the president’s order to review the filtering policy. While 9 months ago, the secretary of the Supreme Council of Cyberspace was obliged to “review the blocking policies of cyberspace”, but still there is no noticeable change in this field

According to the Iran digital economy annotation, the executive vice president, Mohsen Mansouri, said yesterday (December 10, 2023) at a student meeting: The president has ordered a review of the filtering policy.

The vice president is referring to the order issued by Ebrahim Raisi at the meeting of the Supreme Council of Cyberspace on July 27, during which he assigned the Ministry of Communications and the Supreme Council of Cyberspace to follow up on complaints about the slowness of the Internet and submit a report within a month after that.

Less than a month later, at the beginning of August, this working group reported to the president in this regard at the meeting of the Supreme Council of Cyberspace. In the report of this working group, the process of examining various aspects of the Internet from a technical point of view was described and the results of the examinations were also discussed. Apparently, solutions were also given in it, but no details were leaked.

In this meeting, Raisi ordered this working group to continue its activity, but after that, there is no sign of its activity. Only Eisa Zarepour, the Minister of Communications and Information Technology, briefly mentioned this committee on 26 October: a committee was formed to examine the Internet situation at the National Center for Cyberspace. Reasons were drawn about the state of the Internet, some of which are historical.

I have said many times that necessary investments have not been made in some network infrastructures. Short-term solutions were also suggested, which we implemented. It has been two months that the network delay (rtt) has decreased by about 30%.

However, this is not the only order of the president that has not yet come to fruition.

What does Aghamiri do in the council?

At the beginning of March 2022, when the president issued the decree appointing Mohammad Amin Aghamiri, the secretary of the Supreme Council of Cyberspace and the head of the National Center of Cyberspace, he stated in one of his missions: “Reviewing the policies of blocking cyberspace with an emphasis on religious values and revolutionary and paying attention to the new requirements of virtual space”.

However, at the beginning of November of this year, in one of the few times when reporters had the opportunity to ask him questions, Aghamiri did not give a specific answer and only emphasized that the matter is being investigated. He pointed to the Internet Slowness Follow-up Working Group and said: We have started the work.

Regarding the quality of the network that the president ordered, it is followed up very intensively. Its effects can be seen in some indicators. The Ministry of Communications has given a series of programs that are under review. I hope we can provide the desired quality to the people.

Mr. Aghamiri, in response to the question, don’t you think this review has been long? He said: It has not been long. It is being checked.

He also said about the review of the filtering situation: We are reviewing the blocking policies and there is nothing like this. The example discussion is related to the working group in which various members of the government and parliament are present.