Iran and Internet restrictions
While most countries, including Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, China, Switzerland, and other well-known cinematic figures, create stunning images of their territorial attractions and capture the eyes and minds, in Iran, the implementation of the cyberspace protection plan raises concerns. To remove our country from the world market and trade has increased.
According to ISNA, the plan to “protect the rights of users and basic services of cyberspace”, which is better known as the restrictive or blocking plan and filtering of cyberspace, is to be reviewed in the form of Article 85 of the Constitution outside the parliament in a commission. So far, it has provoked various reactions and many interpretations; Although proponents of the plan argue that the internal business environment, organizing, and supporting “domestic” platforms, and managing and demarcating the space will be beyond the control of “foreigners,” opponents argue that implementing the plan is not only a serious problem. Creates for domestic businesses that will migrate skilled workers.
Although the designers said that “there is no filtering of foreign social networks in this plan” or “there is definitely no alternative to a service like Google and Google can never be blocked”, but the new plan of the parliament is interpreted: The owner may not be willing to cooperate with Iran and introduce a representative in our country, it may be limited; “The name of this restriction should be delayed filtering or reducing bandwidth.”
Article 12 of the third chapter of this plan also states that “the supply and activity of basic services in cyberspace is subject to 1- registration in the portal of basic services and 2- obtaining a license to operate effective services of domestic and foreign applications.” Note 1 of this article also states that “the supply and operation of effective external service-based services requires the introduction of a legal representative and the acceptance of the Commission’s notification obligations.” Article 17 of the plan also emphasizes that “the share of traffic of each of the basic basic services in the national information network must be more than the minimum approved by the Commission in relation to the total traffic of the corresponding basic services in the country.” Note 1 of this article also states that “the regulation of the amount of traffic of each of the basic foreign services is determined solely by the Commission.”
Reviewing other materials of this plan and the perceptions and interpretations that come from them, has raised concerns not only about the normal public relations with the outside world, but also about how to access Iran from outside, especially among tourism activists who Due to the limitations and high cost of advertising on foreign networks, currently the cheapest, easiest and most accessible tool for advertising and introducing unknown aspects of Iran is cyberspace.
In the years when warlike and black figures of Iran have been portrayed in the Western and Eastern media, the use of the influential and popular space of social networks has shown a different image of Iran with its tourist attractions, culture and people, and at least the educated class. , Have attracted younger travelers and adventurers to our country, and some of them have even become preachers of travel attractions in Iran, and many others have become interested in traveling to Iran with their comments and pictures on social networks. Therefore, blocking or even restricting this access will do nothing but bring Iran’s tourism back and remove it from international relations.
Surveys show that 48% of Instagram users use the network to choose their next vacation destination, and 35% use Instagram to discover new places. Nearly 80% of all Instagram users live outside the United States, reflecting the social network’s significant global presence. More than half of American adults between the ages of 18 and 29 also use Instagram.
The results of other studies that have been done before show that without using this social network with such a high level of participation, influence and popularity, it is not possible to create an effective tourism marketing program. Therefore, tourism marketing companies that think about future markets can not ignore the popularity of this social network among the younger generation.
A study on the impact of cyberspace on the world of tourism shows that about 84% of people trust online opinions as much as a personal recommendation. In fact, users of social networks such as Instagram prefer to hear the opinion of another consumer to see the recovery messages of a large branded company, so in recent years, many of these companies have resorted to well-known and influential figures on Instagram and other networks to introduce the product and market. .
As for the effectiveness of search engines, which are feared to be limited by the implementation of the “Support for the Rights of Users and Basic Cyberspace Applications” project, studies show that travelers have everything to do, from researching destinations to learning more about Shipping, Activities, Accommodation, and indeed booking use platforms like Google and Bing. This nature of search engines enables marketing companies to reach customers in much more targeted ways and at a much lower cost than other channels and networks.
A 2017 study by Expedia shows that 69% of travelers turn to searchers when they think of traveling; This ranking is higher than all other sources, including family members, friends, online travel agencies (OTA) and travel brand websites.
A separate study by Bing found that 73% of people planning family trips use search engines as part of their travel planning process, and 30% rank search engines as their most important source of information.
Google also found that 70% of travelers with smartphones use the device to search, and 50% of searches on the Google Flights search engine are done via smartphones.
These statistics underscore the importance of search engines and social networks as essential travel planning resources, and raise the question of whether the designers, advocates, and proponents of the “Protecting the Rights of Users and Cyberspace-Based Services” plan, or Internet protection, for What alternatives and prescriptions have they devised to ensure that this communication flow is not disrupted and that Iran is not excluded from international markets and world trade, and how will they fill the predicted gap?
In particular, the use of basic application services (messengers, social networks and other platforms) is clearly criminalized; Article 33 of the plan also states that “any commercial activity in the field of unauthorized production, distribution, reproduction and supply of software or electronic computer tools (such as VIPs and filter breakers), mass distribution (at the discretion of the Commission) and unauthorized making available accessible. It is prohibited to provide blocked services directly or indirectly to unauthorized services, and the perpetrator will be punished with imprisonment and a sixth-degree fine.