National intranet

A national intranet is an Internet Protocol-based walled garden network maintained by a country as a national substitute for the global Internet, with the aim of controlling and monitoring the communications of its inhabitants, as well as restricting their access to outside media. Other names have been used, such as the use of the term halal internet in Iran.

Such networks generally come with access to state-controlled media and national alternatives to foreign-run Internet services including search engines, web-based email, and others.

List of countries with active national intranets

China

China does not maintain a national intranet. Instead, it relies on selective blocking of foreign internet content, a system termed the Great Firewall, combined with censorship of content posted from within its borders, such as by blocking lists of "sensitive" keywords.

Cuba

Cuba has its own state-controlled intranet called national web.

North Korea

North Korea's Kwangmyong network, dating back to 2000, is the best-known of this type of network. Cuba and Myanmar also use a similar network system that is separated from the rest of the Internet. The network uses domain names under the .kp top-level domain that are not accessible from the global Internet. As of 2016, the network uses IPv4 addresses reserved for private networks in the 10.0.0.0/8 range.

Iran

The National Information Network of Iran works like the Great Firewall of China. In April 2011, a senior Iranian official, Ali Agha-Mohammadi announced government plans to launch its own "halal Internet", which would conform to Islamic values and provide "appropriate" services. Creating such a network, similar to the North Korean example, would prevent unwanted information from outside Iran getting into the closed system. The Iranian walled garden would have had its own localized email service and search engine. Iran conducted the longest internet shutdown in history, the 2026 Internet blackout in Iran, and imported internet censorship hardware from China.

Turkmenistan

Turkmenistan blocks foreign websites by ISP since 2009, including YouTube.

List of countries with national intranets planned

Russia

In 2020, Russia tested a national, internal internet known as RuNet.

Since the invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Russia has blocked almost all major platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, X, TikTok, Discord, Roblox, Telegram, YouTube and more due to the 2022 war censorship laws which criminalised the spread of “misinformation” about the war in Ukraine. Some of these platforms, such as Roblox, have been unbanned in the country.

List of countries with defunct national intranets

Myanmar (pre-2011)

Myanmar, before 2011, while it was ruled by a military junta, used to have a separate intranet for domestic use called Myanmar Wide Web.

Tunisia (2007-2011)

During the regime of Zine El Abidine Ben Ali in Tunisia, foreign online platforms such as YouTube, Dailymotion, and Facebook were subject to filtration and censorship by the government. Upon his deposition amidst the Arab Spring protests, the government of acting president Fouad Mebazaa would terminate said censorship of these platforms.

List of countries with scrapped national intranet proposals

Australia

In 2009, WikiLeaks exposed a proposal which would require ISPs to block websites and URLs that host “Refused Classification” (RC) content such as real and fictional child sexual abuse, illegal pornography or violent video games, the latter of which was banned until 2013, and to impose fines costing up to AU$11,000 per day for internet users sending or posting links banned in Australia. Critics worry that lawmakers may consider blocking entire platforms websites such as YouTube, X, and Reddit if they fail to take this content down. Following outcry, the proposal was repealed in 2012.

See also

References

  1. ↑ "The Great Firewall of China". Bloomberg.com. Retrieved 2021-02-21.
  2. 1 2 "Iran clamps down on Internet use", Saeed Kamali Dehghan, The Guardian, 5 January 2012
  3. ↑ "Putin brings China's Great Firewall to Russia in cybersecurity pact". the Guardian. 2016-11-29. Retrieved 2021-02-21.
  4. 1 2 3 Denyer, Simon (2016-05-23). "China's scary lesson to the world: Censoring the Internet works". Washington Post. ISSN 0190-8286. Retrieved 2021-02-21.
  5. ↑ Dave Allen (19 July 2019). "Analysis by Oracle Internet Intelligence Highlights China's Unique Approach to Connecting to the Global Internet". Oracle. Archived from the original on 8 November 2020.
  6. ↑ Siegel, Rachel. "Search result not found: China bans Wikipedia in all languages". Washington Post. ISSN 0190-8286. Retrieved 2021-02-21.
  7. ↑ "How China's Internet Police Control Speech on the Internet". Radio Free Asia. Retrieved 2021-02-21.
  8. ↑ "How China's social media users created a new language to beat censorship on COVID-19". www.amnesty.org. 6 March 2020. Retrieved 2021-02-21.
  9. ↑ Scola, Nancy. "Wait, Cuba has its own Internet?". Washington Post. ISSN 0190-8286. Retrieved 2021-03-20.
  10. ↑ "Cuba - The World Factbook". www.cia.gov. Archived from the original on January 10, 2021. Retrieved 2021-03-20.
  11. ↑ "More Cubans have local intranet, mobile phones". Reuters. Retrieved 2021-03-20.
  12. ↑ Harrison Jacobs (Sep 6, 2018). "Is there internet in Cuba?". Business Insider. Retrieved 2021-03-20.
  13. 1 2 Christopher Rhoads and Farnaz Fassihi (May 28, 2011). "Iran Vows to Unplug Internet". Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 2012-09-24.
  14. 1 2 Mäkeläinen, Mika (14 May 2016). "Yle Pohjois-Koreassa: Kurkista suljetun maan omaan tietoverkkoon" [Yle in North Korea: Peek into the Network of the Closed Country] (in Finnish). Yle. Retrieved 15 May 2016.
  15. ↑ "Iran To Work With China To Create National Internet System". www.rferl.org. Retrieved 2021-02-21.
  16. ↑ Refugees, United Nations High Commissioner for. "Refworld | Freedom on the Net 2018 - Iran". Refworld. Retrieved 2021-02-21.
  17. ↑ "What You Need to Know about Internet Censorship in Iran". Centre for International Governance Innovation. Retrieved 2021-02-21.
  18. ↑ Ryan Paul (April 10, 2012). "Iran moving ahead with plans for national intranet". Ars Technica. Retrieved 2012-09-24.
  19. ↑ "Iran is using Chinese censorship tech". www.semafor.com.
  20. ↑ "Internet Enemies 2011 - Turkmenistan". Refworld. Retrieved 2026-06-19.
  21. ↑ "Russia Takes a Big Step Toward Internet Isolation". Wired. ISSN 1059-1028. Retrieved 2021-03-20.
  22. ↑ "Russia's tightening grip on internet fuels public discontent". BBC News. 2026-04-24. Retrieved 2026-06-19.
  23. ↑ Tubridy, Mack (2026-04-15). "Russian Websites Begin Blocking VPN Users as Internet Controls Tighten". The Moscow Times. Retrieved 2026-06-19.
  24. ↑ Deibert, Ronald; Palfrey, John; Rohozinski, Rafal; Zittrain, Jonathan (2008-01-25). Access Denied: The Practice and Policy of Global Internet Filtering. MIT Press. ISBN 978-0-262-29072-2.
  25. ↑ Maktabi, Rima. "Troops battle ex-ruler's bodyguards in Tunisia". Archived from the original on 2011-01-19. Retrieved 2026-07-19.
  26. ↑ Parker, Laura (2008-11-20). "Fears over Australia's £55m plan to censor the internet". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2026-06-19.
  27. ↑ "Australia abandons mandatory Internet filter plan". Archived from the original on 2025-01-09. Retrieved 2026-06-19.