National Intranet
A national intranet is a IP (Internet Protocol) based self-contained internet under state control. Considered a form of governmental Internet Fragmentation, intranets limit user access to the global internet. This is made possible by blocking certain IP addresses, limiting bandwidth and offering a suite of state-issued search engines and email services. [1] [2] [3] [4]
Iran's Halal Internet - Yooz
Significant attempts to build a national intranet have occurred alongside the development of safety and security measures, as well as up-to-date protocols since 2006. The development project, named National Internet Project was first considered under the presidency of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and is set to be completed in 2019. This 'halal' style internet will function under Islamic principles, differentiating content based on its "cleanliness". This fundamental approach was most clearly described by Reza Taghipour, minister of information and communications technology (2009-2012) when he stated that "isolation of the clean internet from the unclean portion will make it impossible to use the internet for unethical and dirty businesses”.
Toosheh - Net Freedom Pioneers
Toosheh is a content distribution service created by the NetFreedom Pioneers, a team of Iranian developers living in California. NetFreedom Pioneers created the service to be accessible through Iranian consumer's TV satellite set-top box receiver. The service circumvents Iran's heavy content restrictions and censorship by using a rented satellite ran by a company called Yashat from the United Arab Emirates.
Users are able to download content by switching to the "Toosheh" channel on their satellite TV, ensuring a USB device is ported to their set-top box receiver. Within the span of an hour, users download 1 gigabyte of news, entertainment and educational content to their USB, afterwhich they connect to their personal computer to decode.
Daily content is curated by the NetFreedom Pioneers currently. The non-profit intends to extend this curatorial overview to other content developers in order to reach a broader audience and deliver content previously unavailable due to copyright regulation.