Iran is considering a new, more restrictive approach to digital surveillance as it turns the internet back on after a recent shutdown, WIRED reported.
Previously, Iran’s internet was a patchily censored version of the global web. But the authorities want to move from a blacklist to a whitelist model: Rather than blocking individual sites, only approved ones on the National Information Network intranet will be accessible.
The recent shutdown, a response to widespread protests, was so crude it even took down the NIN. As it returns, Iranians will find themselves ever more under “a centralized system that monitors daily life,” a digital freedom nonprofit said, and tighter government control over what information Iranians can and cannot access.