Google – AFP, Mohammad Davari (AFP), 2 March 2014
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A big logo
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company's
Data Center, its first outside the US on November 7, 2013 in Lulea,
in Swedish
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Tehran —
Iran will not be able to keep up forever its ban on legal access to Internet
hubs such as Facebook, which has four million Iranian users, Culture Minister
Ali Janati said Sunday.
Such
remarks by an Iranian official would have been unimaginable before President
Hassan Rouhani, a reputed moderate, took office in August with a vow for more
freedom.
"Four
million Iranians are on Facebook, and we have restricted it," said Janati.
"We
cannot restrict the advance of (such technology) under the pretext of
protecting Islamic values," said the minister.
Access to
the popular social networking site -- along with others which Iranian
authorities regard as un-Islamic, immoral or undermining the Islamic
establishment -- is obstructed by a massive filtering mechanism.
But
tech-savvy Iranians have resorted to measures, known as anti-filters, to
circumvent the restrictions.
Janati drew
a parallel with a ban on fax machines and video tapes and players imposed the
1979 Islamic revolution.
"If we
look back, we see many of the actions we took after the revolution were
ridiculous."
Rouhani has
adopted a policy that promises greater tolerance on social, cultural and media
issues -- a vow that helped him beat his conservative opponents in the
presidential election last year.
But the
government has faced resistance from hardliners resisting a reversal in such
policies.
A committee
of 13 members determines what online content can be reached on Iran's Internet,
which is notoriously slow.
Unapproved
sites are put under the filtering system. The ban includes Facebook, Twitter,
YouTube and numerous other sites, including blogs.
On Sunday,
Janati suggested that the government was working to remove the online
constraints.
"The
six ministers who are members of the (filtering) committee have clearly stated
that we cannot continue to isolate ourselves from the world," he said.
But, he
added it would take time.
"However,
(filtering) is one of those issues whose solution requires time. And it will be
resolved in time," Janati said.
Despite the
bans, several Iranian officials are active on social networking sites.
Foreign
Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif has attracted nearly 850,000 Facebook followers
by posting regular updates in Persian, and he operates the only
"verified" account of an Iranian official on Twitter.
He also has
a YouTube channel.
Several
pages are also apparently run by Iranian officials, including a popular Twitter
account, @HassanRouhani, believed to belong to the president's office.
Iran's
ultimate authority, supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, also has an online
presence, with a Twitter account in Farsi and a Facebook page
(facebook.com/www.Khamenei.ir) dedicated to him.
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