With protests raging all across the country over water shortages and electricity, Iran's parliament has decided now is not a good time to push through a controversial bill further limiting Iranian citizens’ access to the internet.

The bill, titled “protecting users in cyberspace and organizing social media,” was set to be publicly discussed on Iran's parliament floor July 26. The review of the controversial bill was suspended temporarily, according to Iranian media sources.

Many social media users were relieved by the temporary suspension given that the bill set out to limit Iranians’ access to social media and messenger applications. Among other things, the bill sought to replace foreign social media applications with domestic social media applications that are either controlled or owned by the government. One of the more controversial aspects of the bill was that it would hand over control and monitoring of the internet to the armed forces. 

While many social media users were relieved that discussion of the bill was suspended, they remained concerned that legislators will put the bill up for a vote later. Seyed Ali Pourtabatabaei, a journalist from Qom, wrote on Twitter that the bill “hangs over the head of the Iranian people like a sword.”