{"id":334451,"date":"2025-07-20T21:27:57","date_gmt":"2025-07-20T20:27:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ncr-iran.org\/en\/?p=334451"},"modified":"2025-07-20T21:27:57","modified_gmt":"2025-07-20T20:27:57","slug":"digital-caste-system-iran-codifies-internet-access-by-loyalty","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ncr-iran.org\/en\/news\/society\/digital-caste-system-iran-codifies-internet-access-by-loyalty\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cDigital Caste System\u201d: Iran Codifies Internet Access by Loyalty"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"High-speed
High-speed network cables plugged into a data switch \u2014 the backbone of internet infrastructure<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Two-minute read<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

On July 15, 2025, the Supreme Council of Cyberspace, chaired by Iranian regime president Masoud Pezeshkian, approved a policy to implement a “tiered internet.”<\/a> This system creates a digital caste system, granting privileged, unfiltered access to regime loyalists while condemning the general public to a heavily censored and monitored national network. The move reveals the unchangeable nature of the theocratic regime, where the president is merely an executor of the Supreme Leader’s repressive agenda, and “reform” is a tool to absorb public discontent, not enact meaningful change.<\/p>\n

The regime\u2019s attempts to justify the policy have been marked by a series of blatant contradictions. After the plan\u2019s approval, government spokesperson Fatemeh Mohajerani insisted<\/a> on social media that the new regulation “has no connection with restricting the internet.” Yet, she had previously admitted that certain groups require special treatment, stating, “Naturally, if a journalist needs a freer internet, it should be given to them.”<\/p>\n

Pezeshkian himself echoed this disingenuous rhetoric, posting that “access to free information is the right of all people, not just a specific class.” This statement came after his administration approved the very plan that codifies such a class-based system, a policy first test-driven during the bloody crackdown<\/a> on the November 2019 protests.<\/p>\n

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#Iran<\/a>\u2019s Digital Apartheid: Regime Loyalists Flood the #Internet<\/a> While the Rest of the Nation Goes Darkhttps:\/\/t.co\/qFQw7Bi9wc<\/a><\/p>\n

— NCRI-FAC (@iran_policy) June 20, 2025<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n