When protests spread across Iran in late 2025 and early 2026, the government reached for a familiar tool: near‑total internet shutdowns. Mobile networks went dark, messaging apps failed, and access to outside news collapsed. These blackouts are not technical accidents; they are deliberate acts of control, designed to isolate protesters, disrupt organizing, and prevent the outside world from seeing what was happening inside the country.
Lawmakers in the United States have introduced several bills that reflect a growing recognition that internet access is no longer just a technology issue. It is a human rights issue, both in Iran and around the world. At the center of this effort is the Iran Freedom and Internet Access Act (HR 6469), supported by related measures which focus on transparency, security, and accountability in communications and information systems. Let's dive into this issue a bit deeper!
Historical Context: The “Woman, Life, Freedom” Protests
Any discussion of internet repression in Iran is inseparable from the Woman, Life, Freedom protests that erupted nationwide in 2022 following the death of Mahsa Amini while in the custody of Iran’s morality police. What began as demonstrations against mandatory hijab laws quickly evolved into a broader movement challenging state authority, gender discrimination, and political repression. As protests spread, the Iranian government repeatedly resorted to targeted and nationwide internet shutdowns, throttling mobile data, blocking platforms like WhatsApp and Instagram, and restricting access to international networks.
Those shutdowns revealed how central connectivity had become to modern protest movements. It is essential not only for organizing demonstrations, but also for documenting abuses, communicating with the diaspora, and ensuring global visibility. The state’s response also made clear that internet control was no longer an ad hoc measure, but a deliberate and repeatable tool of governance. The lessons of the Woman, Life, Freedom movement continue to shape how policymakers understand Iran’s use of digital repression, providing critical context for why recent US legislation is aiming to treat internet access as a core human rights concern rather than a secondary technology issue.
The Iran Freedom and Internet Access Act (HR 6469)
The Iran Freedom and Internet Access Act, formally titled the Feasibility Review of Emerging Equipment for Digital Open Media (FREEDOM) Act, is a targeted attempt to understand how modern technology could blunt Iran’s ability to impose nationwide internet blackouts.
Rather than mandating immediate deployment of new systems, the bill directs the Secretary of State, in consultation with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and the Department of the Treasury, to produce a detailed report for Congress within 120 days of enactment. That report must evaluate whether emerging technologies (including direct‑to‑cell satellite services and other non‑traditional connectivity tools) could provide reliable internet access to individuals in Iran without relying on regime‑controlled infrastructure.
The legislation requires a granular assessment of several key factors: the structure and ownership of Iran’s telecommunications sector, the feasibility of bypassing state‑run networks, and the Iranian government’s capacity to counter or jam alternative communication methods. The report must be made unclassified to the greatest extent possible, ensuring that lawmakers, civil society groups, and the public can evaluate the findings, with a classified annex permitted only where national security demands it.
In practice, H.R. 6469 treats connectivity as a strategic problem that requires technical realism, interagency coordination, and an understanding of how authoritarian governments adapt to tools designed to undermine censorship. At present, an estimated 50,000 clandestine Starlink terminals are helping some Iranians remain connected to the outside world, even as the Iranian government has begun actively targeting these devices. Significant questions remain around US security interests, the risks of smuggling connectivity hardware into the country, and the broader geopolitical implications of such efforts. However, with thousands of deaths reportedly acknowledged amid the current protests, pressure is mounting to identify methods that enable accurate reporting and preserve access to information.
Building the Knowledge Base: Transparency and Security at Home
Efforts to promote internet freedom abroad are closely tied to how secure and transparent communications systems are at home. Two additional bills (while not Iran‑specific) reinforce the infrastructure and accountability that underpin US credibility on digital freedom.
Telecom Cybersecurity Transparency Act (S 2480)
The Telecom Cybersecurity Transparency Act focuses squarely on visibility into the vulnerabilities of US telecommunications networks. The bill requires the Secretary of Homeland Security to publicly release, in full, the unclassified report titled “U.S. Telecommunications Insecurity 2022” within 30 days of enactment. The report, prepared for the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), examines systemic weaknesses in the telecom sector that could expose networks to disruption, espionage, or interference.
By mandating full public disclosure of this assessment, S 2480 signals that telecommunications security should not be confined to classified briefings. Instead, it invites policymakers, industry stakeholders, and researchers to confront known risks openly. In the context of global internet repression, where foreign governments exploit weaknesses in communications infrastructure, the bill highlights the connection between domestic resilience and the ability to support secure, open networks internationally.
REPORT Act - Reporting Efficiently to Proper Officials in Response to Terrorism Act of 2025 (S 848)
The REPORT Act establishes a structured transparency framework following acts of terrorism in the United States. Under the bill, senior federal officials (including the Secretary of Homeland Security, the Attorney General, and the Director of the FBI) must submit a joint, unclassified report to Congress within one year after the conclusion of an investigation into a terrorist incident. Classified annexes are permitted, but the core findings must be made publicly available online.
These reports must outline the known facts of the incident, identify security gaps, and recommend policy or operational changes to prevent similar attacks in the future. The reporting requirement sunsets after five years, reflecting an effort to balance accountability with flexibility. Although the REPORT Act focuses on domestic terrorism, it reinforces a broader legislative theme. Public trust depends on timely and transparent explanations of how and why systems fail across both physical security and information systems.
A Legislative Through‑Line: Information as Power
Taken together, these bills reflect a consistent congressional approach to modern information challenges. The FREEDOM Act addresses how authoritarian governments weaponize connectivity itself. The Telecom Cybersecurity Transparency Act confronts hidden vulnerabilities in the networks people rely on every day. The REPORT Act reinforces the expectation that, after crises, the public deserves clear answers.
They operate in different policy lanes (foreign affairs, cybersecurity, counterterrorism) but they share a common premise: control over information shapes power, accountability, and rights. Whether the issue is an internet blackout in Tehran or a security failure at home, lawmakers are increasingly treating transparency and access as core components of democratic resilience.
For Iranians facing digital silence during moments of extreme unrest, HR 6469 represents a step toward understanding how that silence might one day be broken. For everyone else, these measures underscore a broader shift in US policy, one that recognizes that the fight for openness does not stop at borders, cables, or satellites, but runs through every system that carries information from one person to another.
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