TEHRAN — Iran has inaugurated the first phase of its "National Network of Data," a national Intranet, its official news agency IRNA reported Sunday.

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According to IRNA, the network aims to promote online Islamic content, and encourage less dependency on the Internet while providing safer data transfer and protection against cyber-attacks.

It said the second phase of the decade-old project will go online in February 2017 and it will be completed in August 2017.

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Critics say the network may eventually lead to more restrictions for users, but officials deny that.

Earlier in August, Iran targeted hundreds of social media users following a May crackdown on women modeling on Instagram.

Users inside Iran often access sites like Twitter and Facebook though proxies and Virtual Private Networks (VPN).