Baku, Azerbaijan, Feb. 6
By Khalid Kazimov - Trend:
Iran's Minister of Culture and Islamic Guidance Ali Jannati said that 9.5 million Iranians use the social app Viber and 4 to 4.5 million use Facebook, Mehr news agency reported on Feb. 5.
"Users resort to proxy software to gain access to some of these websites that are blocked," he said, stressing "This is a social phenomenon and we have to find out how to use it."
The Iranian culture minister asserted that the use of all available tools is inevitable and no one can stop it.
The Iranian government has blocked public access to many social apps and websites.
Social apps such as Whatsapp and Viber have been controversial among Iranian officials in the past few months. Some more conservative figures have urged blocking access to such applications.
Last summer the Iranian Judiciary Branch set a deadline for the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology to block Whatsapp, Viber, and Tango, demanding swift action by the ministry to cut short public access to them.
Edited by CN