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| Iran's newly elected president has been using Twitter as a diplomatic tool |
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Stories
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Jack Dorsey
tweeted the account on Tuesday, asking: "Are citizens of Iran able to read
your tweets?"
The reply
said he was working to ensure they would "comfortably b able 2 access all
info globally as is their right".
Mr Dorsey
replied: "Please let us know how we can help to make it a reality."
Sites such
as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube are banned in Iran, although many Iranians
bypass restrictions using virtual private networks (VPNs).
The
exchange of tweets between Hassan Rouhani and Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey
has caused much speculation.
But does
this mean that social media will be unblocked in Iran soon? The short answer is
not necessarily.
Mr
Rouhani's preferred language on Twitter is English, not Farsi. He seems more
eager to engage with the outside world than send a message back home.
And here
lies the contradiction that most observers, including Iranian citizens, seem
willing to ignore.
While
President Rouhani and his government ministers are using Twitter and Facebook,
access to social networking sites is banned for Iranian citizens.
We will
have to wait to see how much of Mr Rouhani's rhetoric results in action. He
will certainly have tough days ahead if he is to prioritise his promise of free
access to the internet.
Authorship
debate
Iran's new
administration, which came to power in August, has taken to social media, using
it as a diplomatic tool to engage with the rest of the world.
Iran's
Foreign Minister Javad Zarif has an active Facebook page, as does Oil Minister
Bijan Zanganeh.
Mr Rouhani,
whose campaign slogan was "moderation and wisdom", has had a presence
on Twitter since running for election.
He made
headlines for apparently posting a New Year message to Iranian Jews, and for
chronicling his recent groundbreaking telephone conversation with US President
Barack Obama.
But there
has been some confusion over who is actually operating Mr Rouhani's Twitter
account.
The
president's Twitter handle has not been authenticated by Twitter, which puts a
blue tick on profiles it confirms are genuine.
After Mr
Rouhani's Jewish New Year tweet, his office told reporters that the account was
controlled by those close to the president but that he did not personally
author the tweets.
The BBC's
Persian service said that exclusive pictures and news alerts tweeted by Mr
Rouhani's account suggested it was run by the people in close proximity to
Iran's president.
Critics
have claimed Iran's reformist politicians are being intentionally vague about
who controls their social media accounts, so they can disavow messages that
anger hardliners.
Towards
reform
 |
Twitter
co-founder Jack Dorsey was
pushed out of the company in 2008,
but returned in
2011
|
The Iranian
president has previously voiced his opposition to Iran's internet censorship,
but does not have the lone authority to lift the ban.
Iranians
were briefly granted access to Facebook and Twitter last month, but authorities
claimed the incident was a technical glitch.
However
recent developments have indicated that Iranian authorities are easing their
grip on internet censorship.
Iranians
accessing a filtered website without using a VPN used to be confronted with a
message notifying them that the site had been filtered for "criminal"
content.
Now, all
surfers get is an index page with links to domestic websites and a "no
access" message.
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