The Iranian government has announced that it will assign citizens with official state email addresses, setting a new norm for how the government interacts with its citizens, according to Communications Minister Mohammad Hassan Nami.

In a vaguely worded statement that lacked detail, the government made no mention of whether private email addresses would banned nor whether the state email addresses would be obligatory.

Meanwhile, Iran is also working on creating its own national intranet, largely allowing only those within Iran to get information from one another. How it will affect expat Iranian citizens is not yet known.

If the basis for the email network was that it would only be accessible within their intranet - the Iranternet,if you like - none of those living outside the country would be able to respond to official government information.

Iran's digerati may also be troubled by the government's plans to launch the intranet, despite various ways in which they manage to route around the country's fairly strict limitations on regulations and censorship. A fully-developed intranet might require more technical skills to break the barriers, leaving behind many without advanced skills.

In one more twist, Iran's president-elect Hassan Rouhani will take over his more hardline predecessor in August.

Rouhani is very much perceived the moderate politician, often calling for less state intervention in citizens' lives as well as a less online censorship during his election campaign. His position on the intranet is unknown but if he does not tackle it head on, with a clear intent that it will not be implemented, his position as a moderate will not be long lasting.