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Iranian official: Maybe in five years we laugh at today's bans

Iran Materials 19 December 2013 15:26 (UTC +04:00)

Baku, Azerbaijan, Dec. 19
By Umid Niayesh - Trend:

"Maybe in five years we will laugh at today's actions." These are words of Iranian culture minister, Ali Jannati commenting on bans against satellite TVs and some internet sites.

Jannati who is the son of the powerful secretary of the conservative Guardian Council, Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati, made the remarks referring to the ban on VHS players in the 80s, calling it "ridiculous".

The moderate minister is also against the bans on social networks including Facebook and Twitter.

The number of Internet users in Iran to the end of March was 45.884 million, according to the Internet Penetration Management Portal which is part of Iran's Ministry of Communication and Information Technology. The figure indicates the Internet penetration rate of the country and stood at 61.06 per cent by the end of March.

Several of world's most popular networks, such as Twitter and Facebook are banned in Iran, while users are still able to access them via proxies. For the uninitiated in the world of computer geeks, a proxy allows bypassing 'gates' meant to block certain sites.

The Iranian authorities banned Facebook and Twitter in summer 2009 when ex-President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's disputed re-election victory sparked off massive protests that gained momentum with the help of organisers using social media.

On Nov. 20, Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said the U.S. administration was hopeful of managing to overthrow Iran's regime with the help of social networks such as Twitter and Facebook referring to the presidential election protests in 2009.

Later in September, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani criticised the bans on satellite receivers in Iran saying that banning is an idea that belongs to the past. He added that his administration targets the free access of the Iranian people to gain information.

On Nov. 15, Ali Jannati who is already an active Facebook user said that using social network is not a criminal act, adding that the issue should be discussed in Iran's Committee for Determining Criminal Web Content.

Other ministers of Rouhani's government are also active users of social networks.

While senior officials of the Rouhani`s administration insist that membership in social networks is not a criminal act and defend lifting the ban, Iranian conservatives are uneasy about their comments.

On Nov. 30 the Tasnim news portal quoted a spokesman for the Iranian parliament's cultural commission, Seyyed Ali Taheri as saying Iran's administration is reportedly examining lifting the ban on the Facebook.

He stressed that the administration should respond to parliament's cultural commission regarding the issue.

Facebook is banned in Iran he said, adding that clerics are concerned about not filtering the website.

On Dec. 2, Iran's police chief Esmaeel Ahmadi Moghaddam criticised Rouhani`s cabinet members who "cross the red lines" by using banned social media networks.

In fact, many conservatives in Iran see the Internet and social networks as spying tools.

On December 10, Tasnim news portal published Grand Ayatollah Naser Makarem Shirazi`s fatwa on necessity of continuing the blocking of social networks such as Facebook.

Membership of Facebook is offensive while it is a tool for "spreading corruption and sin," the fatwa reads.

Spies and treasons can even transfer information via the website, according to the grand ayatollah's fatwa.

In past years some Iranian citizens had been charged with spying for using the Internet and social networks.

On Dec. 4, the IRGC (Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps) arrested 16 cyber activists on charges of breaching security through cooperation with foreigners and anti-government websites.

Cooperation with Western news networks, designing and updating websites educating citizen reporters and cooperation with opposition websites were among the charges which the arrested activists were accused of.

On Dec. 8, the secretary of the Committee for Determining Criminal Web Content, Abdolsamad Khorramabadi, called Facebook "an espionage website" which must remain blocked.

On Dec. 9, commander of the Iran's Morality Police, Massoud Zahedian said that Iran's Cyber Police is actively monitoring Iranians activity on the Internet.

"The police are present on the Internet and are monitoring environments such as Facebook, Instagram, WeChat etc.," he added.

While several members of Rouhani`s administration are using Facebook and Iranian moderate officials have repeatedly criticised the ban on Facebook and other social networks, why does the administration not lift the ban on social networks?

The keywords are 'the Committee for Determining Criminal Web Content'.

The issue should be discussed in the committee headed by conservative politician and Prosecutor General of Iran, Gholam-Hossein Mohseni-Eje'i.

While six of Rouhani`s ministers are also members of the committee, the president did not yet send any request on unblocking Facebook them.

Maybe softening filtering policies is not a priority for pragmatic Rouhani compared to economic and foreign policy topics, but it is clear he would face big challenges on his human right programmes.

He made promises to the Iranian people on easing the political atmosphere and free information transfer during his presidency campaign and his supporters await practical steps.

Rouhani has had to create a balance among his reformist supporters and powerful conservative bodies in the Iranian administration.

He tries to pursue disputed issues such as lifting the ban on the Facebook quietly which is a political tradition amongst pragmatic Iranian politicians.

However time is passing quickly and Rouhani should take practical steps and maybe even in less than five years the administration 'will laugh at today's bans'.

Edited by S.M.

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