Azerbaijan, Baku, September 10 / Trend, N. Umid /
Iran may conditionally unblock Facebook, member of Iran's Committee on Internet filtering Mohammad Reza Aghamiri, said, Mehr news agency reported.
Facebook does not operate in compliance with Iranian rules and most of its contents violate Iran's "redlines", he added.
Aghamiri went on to note that Facebook would be unblocked if it respects Iranian rules.
Some content of this social network, by law, are considered criminal according to Iranian laws, he said.
He also argued that Facebook provides an opportunity that can be used to promote Islam and the Islamic Culture of Iran.
"We should develop a smart filtering system for separating illegal and useful content on Facebook," Aghamiri said, adding that Facebook may be unblocked after that.
Last week, Iranian Vice President for Legal Affairs Mrs. Elham Aminzadeh said that, administration will look into whether joining Facebook is legal or not.
She made the remarks after Iranian media outlets reported that Some Ministers of President Hassan Rouhani`s administration have joined Facebook.
According to the report, first Vice President Eshaq Jahangiri, FM Mohammad Javad Zarif, Oil Minister Bijan Namdar Zanganeh, Ministr of Housing and Urban Development Abbas Ahmad Akhondi, Spokeswoman of FM Marzieh Afkham and Rouhani`s Advisor Hesamaddin Ashena have joined Facebook already.
Iran has blocked access to the many websites including You Tube, Facebook, VOA, the BBC as well as political Farsi-language sites, especially by local bloggers critical of the Islamic system.
Pornographic websites also are totally restricted in Iran; even ordinary information about books or films are sometimes blocked if their titles contain terms such as sex or even kiss.
Most users have found ways to evade the state censors and get access to all sites via proxy tunnels and channels.
The number of internet users in the year which ended in March 2012 reached 32.7 million in Iran. The number of GPRS users amounts to 27.5 million, accounting for 36 percent of total internet users in Iran as of current.
Some 867,000 people are using high-speed internet, and about 6 million people are using internet via an optical fiber network.
Since 2005, Iran has been developing a "national internet" to improve control over its content as well as speed.
The project, which is separate from the World Wide Web, was scheduled to be completed by 2013. This network will be separated from the rest of the internet which is specifically for domestic use.