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The final straw: Iranians dread plans for a 'national' internet

Watching YouTube in Iran feels like torture. So does downloading an app from Google Play, or even sending a voice message on WhatsApp. In short, using the internet here is like living with a chronic disease—you may learn to cope, but you'll never stop hating it.

People find ways to bypass these restrictions, but it comes at a literal cost: the price of a circumvention tool, typically a Virtual Private Network (VPN). Pezeshkian criticized Iran's internet policy in his campaign but is unlikely to challenge it in officeThis would resonate with millions of Iranians who get online not to protest but to earn a living. I stopped promoting my handicraft during the uprising because there was an unspoken agreement among many users not to self-promote while young girls and boys were braving bullets on the streets.” This is Somayeh, a 34-year old woman from Birjand in northeast Iran.

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