Iran restores some internet access - but is it enough? | Global News Podcast

Welcome to the Global News podcast from. the BBC. I'm Valerie Sanderson and with. me is Raha Kansara from the BBC's Global. Disinformation Unit. And today Raha, we're talking about the restoration of. the internet in Iran against the. backdrop of the war with the US. So so. what is happening as regards the. internet there? >> So the internet was initially shut off. early January in response to a deadly. crackdown on protests by the government. They said that they were shutting down.

the internet due to security concerns. Say, you know, for example, their. enemies organizing and strategizing with. say Israel or the US for example. But. digital rights activists said that it. was also to quash the flow of. information coming in and out of the. country. Now, this was the internet was. then initially restored partially. in February before it was then shut off. once more when the war with the the US. and Israel began. And now what we're.

seeing is a partial restoration of the. internet up to at least 53% according to. Kentic which has been monitoring the. flow of traffic of internet going in and. out of the country. >> And Raha, I know you're talking to. people in Iran about this. What are they. telling you about their experience? >> So I've been talking to many people both. inside Iran and outside Iran through the. diaspora. And the sense that I get from. inside Iran is that the internet is. either slow or it is still restricted to.

some extent. So some Western platforms. like WhatsApp and Instagram are still. blocked and can only be used or accessed. via VPN. Or that some people's mobile. providers don't aren't able to provide. them with the internet data that they. need. So in one household, one person. can have internet on their phone and the. other person might not. The Iranian. diaspora on the other hand, they are. ecstatic about this partial restoration. It's not enough, of course, and no one.

is saying it's enough, but there is a. level of I can talk to my family now. You know, one person told me that she. was able to speak to her to her parents. for the first time in months. That is. something that you can't take away from. people, especially when they're trying. to to find out whether their family. members are still alive or not. But with. the partial restoration, it's not just. about. Iranians that I've been speaking to. inside the country or Iranians in the. diaspora. It's really. quite something to see a visual. depiction of what people are feeling on.

social media. I saw a video of a young boy, probably about six or seven years old, who was saying that after 1 year of an. internet shutdown he said 1 year, but. it's not been 1 year, but after. >> He probably felt it. >> He probably felt it. After a after a. while of an internet shutdown, he was. finally able to play a video game. Now, that compared to a lot of what we hear. is about what activists can and cannot. get out of the country or what. information people can or cannot get out.

of the country. But to hear this young. boy talk about just being able to play. an online game was really quite poignant. and and uplifting at the same time. There are also other videos of people. screened screen grabbing their phones. showing them deleting homegrown. messaging apps saying that they don't. have to use them anymore. Of course, this is a concern for many people. because. if you're using a homegrown messaging. app in comparison to say WhatsApp or. Telegram, it's it's more likely that it is being.

scrutinized by the government. So, a lot. of reaction from social media from. Iranians in the country showing. a level of relief. >> It must be crucial to people not just in. keeping connection with family and. friends, but also for their income. >> Well, the population is heavily reliant. on at least Instagram, which is one of. the most popularly popularly used. platforms in the country. And it is used. for many small businesses and for much. wider, bigger businesses to advertise. their services. It also operates as a.

place for free information because the. media landscape in Iran is quite heavily. censored and is constrained to what the. authorities and the government want you. to see, hear, and watch. >> Do we think this partial reintroduction. of access to the internet? Do we think. that's connected to the talks that we. understand are ongoing with the US? >> It's really hard to know whether it will. have any impact on ceasefire talks and.

whether it lasts or not. But. from the experts I've spoken to, it. seems as though. this this shutdown and the way. externally and internationally people. are talking about it, it's catching up. to the Iranian government and it might. be that they are trying to save face. So. a partial restoration isn't just about. lifting the economy because obviously. it's boosting businesses, but it's also. about making sure that they are showing. that there is some sort of compromise in.

terms of the information flow as well. I. would say that the way the Iranian. government operates is in two parts. So. they have a bureaucratic government. that's elected and they also have a. supreme government. And President. Peseschkian, although he initiated this. partial restoration of the internet, it. would have had to have had the. involvement of this supreme council. as well as the supreme council of. cyberspace, which yes does exist.

>> And there has been a pushback against. it, hasn't there? >> Well, there initially was a pushback, but now that we're seeing a partial. restoration, it's hard to know whether. there has been some. agreements or sort of compromise between. the two. But what I have heard from. digital experts is that there is a real. division between the Supreme Council and. the elected government and the uh the. bureaucratic government so to speak uh. has limited authority. So, the fact that. it's gone to this point where we have. had partial restoration could not have.

happened without the blessing or some. blessing from the Supreme Council. >> So, how much filtering and monitoring is. going on? Do we know? >> Well, Filter Watch, which is an Iranian. uh NGO that has been looking at the. cyber landscape of the country and how. it's operating right now. They've found. that two-factor authentication is not. working in the country right now. So, that that's the sort of authentication. you need to access um apps like. Instagram, Telegram, WhatsApp, Facebook,

which gives you a level of security in. order to access your platforms and your. social media platforms safely. If those. aren't working, despite having internet, you're not able to actually go online. and communicate with other people or use. these apps. So, that's just one way that. they are filtering the internet. But, the other way that they're doing this is. through a tiered system. Now, we we know. that there is a there are two two. internets that exist in Iran. One is the. Filter Net. It is it operates like an. intranet um and that it that has their.

own homegrown apps. So, they have apps. like Bale and Rubika, which are. homegrown instant messaging apps, which. allow people to communicate with with. one another inside the country. And then. the other is what we refer to as the. World Wide Web or the global internet, which is what is restricted at the. moment. Now, because of this partial. restoration, it is most likely that it's. very slow and not accessible to. everyone. And some digital experts fear. that what will happen in the future is. that there will be a multi-layered.

tiered system of internet access. The. more money you have, the more likely it. is you can access the World Wide Web or. the global internet easily. >> Could you get past this if you use. satellite technology, which I know some. people have tried to smuggle into the. country? >> Satellite technology is one way to. bypass internet restrictions. I actually. spoke to a smuggler from uh the Iranian. diaspora who was smuggling Starlight. technology into the country. But he did.

add that there is a caveat that if. you're using this technology, you have. to use it with a VPN because satellite. technology, despite it getting you. access to the internet, as soon as you. connect to the internet, if you have a. homegrown nationalized Iranian app on. your phone, it will ping and it will. notify the authorities that you are. online. And if you are doing that. illegally, then that comes at a cost. >> And of course they can block VPNs, can't. they? >> Exactly, they can block VPNs, but also. to to use a VPN that is less likely to. get blocked costs a lot of money. And in.

this climate economical climate in Iran, not many people can afford them. >> Did digital specialists they think that. this is the way ahead that Iran may. never want full access to apps like. Google reintroduced? >> Well, it's not that they don't have full. access. It's that they are blocking that. access. So, what Iran has done is they. have mimicked what the Chinese called. the Great Firewall. Um and they have So, it's it's sort of a blueprint for the.

way Iran is using internet and how. people can access internet. And so, it will always be available to them. through VPNs, through proxies, um and you know, through other ways to. to mask identities and and kind of. maneuver it in a certain way. But what. digital rights groups say is that they. shouldn't have to do that um because. this is a direct uh infringement on. people's freedoms of speech, communication, and information.

>> Thanks, Reha. That was Reha Kasra from. the BBC's Global Disinformation Unit. And if you want to find out more about. this story, just listen to the global. news podcast. Click on the link below. But that's it from the global news. podcast here on YouTube. Thanks for. listening. Thanks for watching. Bye for. now.