> I wish this article went into more details on what the "National Information Network" is.

It's AS12880, the state owned telecom company which all ISPs are obligated to be downstream of. It operates Iran's international links to other global scale ISPs via Turkey and other paths.

https://www.peeringdb.com/asn/12880

https://bgp.he.net/AS12880

And its also government run counterpart, the "TIC"

https://bgp.he.net/AS49666#_asinfo

https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-d&q=AS12880+i...