Tehran, Iran, Mar. 7
By Mehdi Sepahvand – Trend:
Iran has an interesting history with cyberspace. The development of the infrastructure has always been behind public demand. Not only that, the legal status of using certain websites and apps has always been an issue. But improvement has been the case, however slow.
The strategic importance of cyberspace and social apps in particular found crystal embodiment during the 2009 presidential election campaign, when the extensive use of Facebook by the fans of one party led to the blockage of the website by the government in Iran.
In the years that followed although people were able to use proxies to access Facebook, Twitter, Google+, and messaging apps that were being banned one after another, they took much caution to go under pseudonyms to avoid security recognition and legal pursuit.
However, things found a completely new aspect when the Rouhani administration took office in 2013. President Hassan Rouhani himself was a critic of the tough policy on cyberspace. Iranians were surprised when they found Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, their hero in the long nuclear talks with world powers, constantly update his Instagram account and directly address them from there.
Other officials also took the lead and it became a normal thing even to find conservative news outlets file reports on what officials said on social media.
The interesting story reached a new zenith when late this January former president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, under whom Facebook, Twitter, and innumerable other websites had been blocked, joined Twitter and put on a video inviting the world in English to follow him. This came as amusing to Iranians and a good spot for Western media to prod the unprecedentedly individualist president now turned social.
But things have not stopped there and seeped into lower governmental layers. Iran-based ride-hailing apps such as Tap30 and Snapp have been a source of contention for over a year. These apps have turned out to be a serious rival for traditional taxi companies, with more and more people rushing to them for the lower fares they facilitate, leading traditional taxi companies bankrupt. Taxi drivers and owners of taxi companies have been holding demonstrations demanding the government to do something about the apps.
The tradition would be for the government to block the ride-hailing apps and announce their companies illegal. There were even talks to that effect in the beginning. But just this week, the Tehran Taxi Organization, governed under the Municipality, announced that instead of such negational measures, it would facilitate the use of similar apps for traditional taxi companies.
The cyberspace and social media have been a source of concern for Iranians who demand to use them as people in other countries do. However, the demand has not gone without some answer, with the use of cyberspace and social media imposing itself on governmental bodies as well. Thus, Iranians should be looking forward to much improvement of the status of cyberspace and social media as time goes by.