The launching of "clean intranet" in Iran

Part of an email I received from a dear friend who lives in Iran, translated by me and revised for clarity:

"If the news is correct, soon we will no longer have internet access here in Iran. We will have to say goodbye for a while... [the recent inaccessibility to internet in Iran] is apparently related to the "test" of the so called national internet or intranet. Yesterday, I read that we [people in Iran] will have only access to a "clean internet" and will no longer have access to the international one, so we might lose our connection to the net all together..."

Some news agencies confirm the launching of the "national internet" or intranet or "clean internet":

"A report by the Roozegar daily has cited telecommunications officials as saying that the reason for the reduction in internet speed was linked to the launch of a "Clean" or "National" internet, which could be as early as two weeks from now." (Link)

I don't know how realistic it is for the Iranian government, or any government for that matter, to be capable of replacing the international internet with a national "clean" one. I also can't confirm whether the recent decrease of internet speed in Iran is related to the installation of "national clean intranet" or is due to other reasons. But People in Iran are experiencing new hardships in checking their emails or using Internet-cafes.

ISNA reports that Tehran Police announced on Tuesday that internet cafes must check their customers’ identity cards before offering them any services. The cafes are also reportedly required to install closed-circuit cameras to record the faces of their customers. (Link)

Yet, the news of such government's domestic acts such as the launching of the "clean intranet" has received little to no attention from the Iranian activists living outside Iran, and they are unable to reflect the voices of their counterparts in Iran. The recent war and sanctions-mongering by US-Europe has understandably preoccupied the expat Iranian activists and disconnected many of them from the matters happening inside Iran. Not all have been preoccupied opposing the warmongering, in fact, some have been absorbed building their hopes in further sanctions and possible humanitarian bombings. However, whether endorsing or opposing the war-sanctions mongering, the activists have been distracted from the domestic happenings inside Iran. People familiar with Iran's politics know how dangerous it can be for Iran's political victims when Iran's activists are forced to neglect the domestic oppression.

The supposedly independent government of Iran (meaning independent from the world powers of the US, Israel and the Western Europe), not only receives help for its censorship from countries in Europe, Israel and elsewhere (e.g., for the launching of the "clean internet" and other similar surveillance tasks) but also gets enormous help from warmongers in preventing the activists from amplifying voices of resistance inside Iran. If a connection and solidarity was formed between the outside, inside and different segments of Iran's political opposition (up to the last demonstration in Iran, almost a year ago), that cooperation has been recently, to some extent, ripped apart by the warmongering imperialist forces. This is not to suggest that all the people in Iran are only concerned with Iran's government domestic policies and regulations as such policies and daily life experiences are interconnected and entangled to world affairs (such as the threats of wars and imposition of more fatal economic sanctions against Iran). I also don't wish to suggest that the outside activists have been ideologically homogeneous and unified in their opposition against war and sanctions. They are not. The point of the matter is that the warmongering has acted as a distracting force in favor of Iran's regime, has further compartmentalized the opposition, and has weakened the progressive voices who simultaneously oppose both domestic and imperialist oppression. In such a state of emergency, the strengthening of the threats of war and further sanctions against Iran, "you are either with us or against us" has once more become a mantra among sections of Iran's political activism sphere. Once more, imperialism seems hard at work aiding Iran's hardline sections of the government to exhaust a home-grown resistance movement.