Iran expands tiered internet access amid continued online blackout
Key takeaways
- It is unclear how regular internet connections jeopardise national security, but others sold by the government do not.
- The council, which Pezeshkian has now said he wants to reform, is a powerful state body established by slain Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in 2012 to govern the internet landscape in Iran.
- The council, and its current secretary, Mohammad Amin Aghamiri, have led the charge in heavily restricting Iranians’ access to the internet based on “security considerations”.
Why this matters: an international story with cross-border implications worth tracking.
It is unclear how regular internet connections jeopardise national security, but others sold by the government do not.
xwhatsapp-strokecopylinkgoogle Add Al Jazeera on Googleinfo Iranian women use computers at an internet cafe in central Tehran, Iran, Monday, February 13, 2012 [File: Vahid Salemi/AP Photo]By Maziar Motamedi Published On 14 May 202614 May 2026Tehran, Iran – Iran is looking at ways of providing limited connectivity to approved individuals and entities amid a continued state-imposed internet shutdown, with a tiered access model currently being offered that experts have said still undermines the digital rights of Iranians.
President Masoud Pezeshkian on Wednesday announced the creation of a new entity to review internet coverage in the country named the Specialised Headquarters for Organising and Guiding Iran’s Cyberspace, with First Vice President Mohammad Reza Aref, a relative moderate, appointed as its head.