Iran’s two-tier internet access fuels anger and exposes cracks in the regime

(CNN) — The internet blackout in Iran is more than two months old, the longest on record. For millions who rely on being online to make a living, the void has been devastating.

But some have privileged access through what’s called “Internet Pro” – and that’s causing widespread public criticism. The program, launched earlier this year, appears to be another weapon enabling hardliners and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) to exert control in Iran.

Iran’s state media boasts of the unity of the government and the people in the face of what it calls an “imposed war” by the United States and Israel, but arguments over who gets what internet access have spilled into the media and embroiled the highest levels of government.

Iranians speak of mounting frustration about being cut off or spending what little money they have in occasionally getting a glimpse of the outside world.

“Imagine dealing with unemployment and crazy inflation, and somehow managing to scrape together 500,000 or a million tomans (about $13), only to spend it on a couple of gigabytes of VPN just so you can get on X or other platforms, check the news, and have a voice,” said Faraz, a 38-year old resident of Tehran. The average monthly wage in Iran is between 20 million and 35 million tomans ($240 to $420).

“And then, in the middle of all this stress and frustration, when you finally manage to open X or Telegram, you see people with unrestricted access acting like everything is normal, it honestly feels like a punch to the gut,” Faraz told CNN.

A VPN (Virtual Private Network) service is a tool that hides a user’s location online, and many people in Iran use it via the black market to get around internet blocks.

The sale of Internet Pro began in February through the Mobile Communications Company of Iran (MCI), after businesses complained that they had been hurt by heavily restricted access during nationwide protests in January. MCI is owned by a consortium with close ties to the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).

Internet Pro emphasizes connection stability and less restricted access to international sites. Essentially it provides the same level of access to a fortunate few that was once available to everyone. Users must pass a verification process and have a business, academic or scientific role.

But many Iranians complain it widens the already huge gap between rich and poor.

It has “divided Iranian society into two distinct classes: a digital elite who enjoy fast, unfiltered channels for business, education, and communication, and digital subjects who are confined within heavy filtering, restricted speeds, and the high costs of the black-market VPN economy,” according to the independent publication Khabar Online.

“The main issue is no longer just filtering or shutdowns; rather, it is the redefinition of the right to access the internet,” Mohammad-Hamid Shahrivar, a lawyer, said in an interview with the Shargh news outlet.

The price of black-market VPN apps has skyrocketed, and losing internet access has cost Iranians about $1.8 billion over the past two months, according to Human Rights Activists in Iran (HRA), which is based outside the country. That tallies with an estimate from Iran’s Chamber of Commerce.

“The internet shutdown, which by itself was the source of livelihood for a very large number of virtual businesses – has created a dire and complicated situation,” the newspaper Ettela’at complained.

How Iranians connect to the internet

Iran has repeatedly used internet shutdowns during periods of unrest, where access to the global internet is severely restricted or completely cut, making foreign websites and apps unreachable. During major shutdowns, authorities often keep parts of the domestic internet running, allowing access to local banking and government services while cutting off communication with the outside world.

The current blackout began on January 8 amid anti-government protests. Restrictions were partially eased in February before being tightened again after the US and Israel struck Iran on February 28.

Reports from inside the country suggest that Internet Pro works through telecom-level “whitelisting” tied to so-called “white SIM cards,” where certain SIM cards, mobile accounts, or institutions are exempted from the country’s filtering systems.

Unlike a VPN, which bypasses censorship by encrypting internet traffic, Internet Pro appears to route pre-approved users through less restricted gateways. Users with white SIMs reportedly retain access to the full global internet.

Reported pricing for Internet Pro includes a one-year 50 gigabyte package costing around 2 million toman, plus activation fees of 2.8 million toman and roughly 40,000 toman for each additional gigabyte. By comparison, ordinary internet – now heavily restricted – costs 8,000 toman per gigabyte, leaving VPN services as the only option for many.

There is another way to access the unrestricted internet, but it carries significant risks. A number of Starlink satellite receivers have been smuggled into the country, allowing users to bypass restrictions by connecting directly to SpaceX satellites. But the devices are illegal in Iran, and owning one can carry severe consequences, including arrest and accusations tied to national security.

Divisions within the regime

The question of who gets better internet access has laid bare divisions within the regime. The plan to introduce Internet Pro was approved by the Supreme National Security Council in February, but the government led by President Masoud Pezeshkian has declared it opposes tiered access.

Pezeshkian’s office said last month that the restrictions on people’s access to the global internet were unfair and that government agencies had failed to set out a rationale for such a system. “In this regard, they have fallen short,” it said.

Communications Minister Sattar Hashemi asserted that high-quality access to the internet was every Iranian’s right.

“Tiered internet or a ‘whitelist’ system has no validity,” Hashemi said. A senior adviser to Hashemi stressed that the ministry had nothing to do with Internet Pro, which had been designed to help businesses maintain service stability during crises, but “has now been misused.”

But more hardline officials have supported the policy, according to analysts. They include Mohammad Amin Aghamiri, who runs the authority governing control of cyberspace.

Aghamiri was sanctioned by the United States and United Kingdom in 2023 over human rights abuses linked to the crackdown on protests in Iran.

Public criticism

Some labor organizations – such as Iran’s 300,000-strong nurses’ union and various lawyers’ groups – have rejected the use of Internet Pro in solidarity with ordinary workers who rely on it.

It’s also been criticized by the Iranian Psychiatric Association.

“Unequal patterns of access to the global internet may lead to increased psychological stress, feelings of being overlooked or marginalized, (and) a decline in public trust,” the association said last week.

Forced onto the defensive, officials have offered several reasons for the tiered system.

“The reason for the temporary restrictions is to prevent the recurrence of destructive cyberattacks on the country’s critical infrastructure,” claimed one unidentified official quoted by the Fars news agency.

The official claimed Internet Pro was a crisis measure to “provide services with minimal disruption to specific professions such as professors, doctors, journalists, and programmers.”

Public anger has also been fed by profiteering among those with privileged access to the internet, as the Internet Pro SIM cards started appearing on the black market.

The head of the judiciary, Gholamhossein Mohseni Ejei, said it was “unacceptable that unqualified individuals or profiteers exploit this platform for financial abuse,” and called on prosecutors to deal with “discriminatory and corrupt” access.

Reformists in Iran seem to sense it is one issue on which they will get public support. The Iran Reform Front, which groups moderate factions, says that this “discriminatory approach is widely perceived as sustaining the VPN black market and exploiting people’s hardship, further intensifying the sense of injustice.”

At a time when the regime is desperate to project a united front against the US and Israel, discontent over who can do what online is creating a very public schism across a swathe of Iranian society.

The-CNN-Wire
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