🔶“Countering Influence” plan; the authorities’ infiltration into the lives of citizens

🔻A report by Niloofar Gholami

The news of the Parliament’s approval of the generalities of a bill known as “Countering the influence of intelligence services and governments, or of foreign institutions in the country” delivered yet another shock to a society wounded by the war and killings of December 2024.

This bill, which was prepared in 19 articles, is essentially an attempt to create a new legal framework for dealing with what the bill describes as “the influence of intelligence services, governments, and foreign institutions.” The rationale of the bill’s drafters is that while there are laws for spying, there is a legal gap regarding “influence,” and therefore behaviors that could be regarded as paving the way for foreign influence must be explicitly criminalized.

The important point here is that the scope of the bill is not limited to spying or the transfer of confidential information. In the version whose generalities were approved in Parliament, communication with foreign media, academic cooperation with foreign institutions, contact with embassies and non-Iranian entities, receipt of foreign financial support, and political, cultural, and social activities have also, under certain conditions, been made subject to prohibition, a requirement to obtain a permit, or punishment.