President Rouhani's government has clashed with Iran's judiciary over access to social media
Iran's judiciary has
given the country's government 30 days to block a string of mobile messaging
services, after they were used to publish "crimes" against
"Islamic modesty and morals".
The move comes as a blow
to Iran's president, Hassan Rouhani, who has so far taken a more liberal stance
towards the use of social media in the country. "#Cyberspace should be
seen as opportunity," he tweeted in
May. And in August he surprised many by
tweeting a picture of a female mathematician without a hijab.
His attitude is not
shared by everyone in the country, however. Earlier this month 11 people were
arrested for sending messages seen as insulting towards, Ayatollah Khomeini.
Local media reports said
similar messages had also been sent about current officials in the Iranian
government.
The messages appear to
have been the final straw for Iran's hardline judiciary. On the weekend
Gholam-Hossein Mohseni-Ejei - the first deputy of the judiciary - wrote
an open letter to
Mahmoud Vaezi - Iran's communications minister.
The letter named
messaging apps Whatsapp, Viber and Tango as responsible for spreading the
messages, and said "a one-month maximum has been provided… for closing and
controlling information on the aforementioned social networks".
Mr Mohseni-Ejei wrote
that the government's communications ministry had agreed to close the networks
three months ago, but had so far refused to take action - hence the new 30 day
ultimatum. If the messaging services are not censored within that time, the judiciary
would "take the appropriate measures" itself, he wrote. The ministry
responded to say it agreed illegal content should be
removed, but that closing the networks altogether was another
matter.
Iran has a history of
monitoring and blocking social media. Youtube, Facebook, Twitter and Google
Plus are all blocked in the country, but millions of people use proxy servers
to bypass the restrictions
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