Iranians in mullahs’ grip and isolated from world as presidential elections approach

Nora Bandari

The mullah regime is working on a continuous basis to adopt a method of repression and dictatorship against the Iranian people who reject their policies that have entered the country during recent years in the tunnel of crises due to the rampant corruption and mismanagement of the ruling class, which has in turn negatively affected the living conditions of citizens and led to a complete economic collapse, in addition to the health collapse caused by the Iranian government’s failure to deal with the corona pandemic, not to mention Tehran’s remarkable failure in managing international files such as the nuclear agreement, which is witnessing a slow death after the United States withdrew from it in May 2018.

‘Halal internet’

With the approaching Iranian presidential elections scheduled for June 2021, the ruling regime, under the direction of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, resorted to activating the role of the “halal internet” by tightening censorship on social media sites that allow citizens to express their opinions and transmit their voices to the world, exposing the corruption and crimes of the ruling regime.

In this context, many international media revealed in recent few days the Iranian regime’s efforts to hide the remaining features of the freedom to use the internet by imposing the idea of a “halal internet”, under the name of preserving the values of the Iranian state, according to the Times.

Although the mullahs banned a number of social media sites such as Twitter and Facebook, keeping Instagram as one of the windows through which young people can communicate directly and freely with the outside world, whether to follow fashion or celebrity news or to organize protests against the regime, in recent months, the regime has sought to impose new restrictions on the internet and ban all social media applications, and then replace them with a national alternative that can be censured and monitored.

According to the Times, if the Iranian regime applies the national internet, then ordinary people will not be able to access Google, Instagram, or other sites, resulting in the isolation of Iranian citizens from the rest of the world, placing them in grip of the authorities.

Source of concern

Dr. Masoud Ibrahim Hassan, an academic who specializes in Iranian affairs, explained that Iran began to view the internet as a fueling factor for foreign interference following the repression that took place in 2009 after the presidential elections were rigged in favor of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. At that time, large protests appeared in the Iranian street, and citizens began to publish pictures of those protests, which was condemned by human rights organizations.

Hassan told the Reference that as a result, the Iranian regime established the Supreme Council for Internet Control in 2012, and among its actions was to establish a national internet isolated from the global network, as well as to disable all sites that pose a threat to the Iranian regime. That mission belongs to the Revolutionary Guard, which has succeeded in suppressing protests, monitoring citizens, and arresting anyone who opposes the ruling regime.

Supreme Leader’s candidate

Hassan noted that the internet will have an effective role in the upcoming presidential elections, given that the Iranian people have lost confidence in the current regime and its management of foreign files, the most important of which is the nuclear agreement. Therefore, the regime resorted to using what it called the national internet to support a specific candidate who would be from the hardliner current and supported by the Supreme Leader and the Revolutionary Guard.

Hassan added that all of this comes within the framework of the Iranian regime’s policy of oppression and tyranny against its people, especially those opposed to its policies and ideas of restricting their movements, restricting their actions, and ultimately arresting them and even executing them, which indicates the restriction of the freedoms of the Iranian people who are still waiting for the opportunity to break free from the mullah regime.