Iran's Minister of Communications Announces Review of Twitter Ban

The Iranian Minister of Communications and Information Technology has stated that the issue of lifting the ban on the social media platform Twitter has been referred to the Supreme Council of Cyberspace, which is currently reviewing the matter. Mohammad Javad Azari Jahromi, in an interview with ILNA news agency, refrained from providing details, saying, "Let us present the details after we reach conclusions." The Supreme Council of Cyberspace is a non-governmental body that operates under the supervision of the President, but its members are appointed by the Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic. In addition to several individual members, the council consists of the heads of the three branches of government, the head of the state broadcasting organization, the Minister of Communications and Information Technology, the Minister of Culture, the Minister of Science, the Minister of Education, the scientific vice president, the head of the Cultural Commission of the Parliament, and the head of the Islamic Propaganda Organization. However, the Attorney General, the commander of the Revolutionary Guards, the commander of the police, and the ministers of defense and intelligence are also members. Regarding the filtering of social networks, Mr. Jahromi had previously stated before receiving a vote of confidence from the Parliament as Minister of Communications that he sees no necessity for filtering or keeping them filtered unless they contradict "cultural principles." At that time, he also mentioned that the filtering of Twitter was not due to "moral and cultural issues," but rather for "national security" reasons. During the previous government of Hassan Rouhani, Mahmoud Vaezi, the then Minister of Communications and Information Technology, had also requested the filtering criteria working group to reconsider the ban on Twitter. While several cabinet ministers and officials of the Islamic Republic, including members of the Parliament and even the office of the Supreme Leader, are active on Twitter, the platform remains banned in Iran. Ali Motahari, the Deputy Speaker of the Parliament, has pointed out that the accounts of high-ranking officials of the Islamic Republic on Twitter, including that of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, indicate that "this ban could be lifted for all people." The Minister of Communications in Rouhani's government had previously stated that one of his personal reasons for being part of the cabinet was to activate the government's Twitter diplomacy. Mr. Jahromi's statements come at a time when, in August of this year, the head of Iran's Cyber Police labeled social media platforms Twitter and Telegram as "the largest communication tools for terrorist groups" worldwide and stated that Twitter would remain banned in the country. Kamal Hadianfar added that "Twitter is the platform for the activities of terrorists, and I told its manager in a meeting in Spain that currently more than 750,000 people worldwide support ISIS and are its terrorist operatives, and all their activities occur on Twitter." He claimed that "the primary platform for terrorist operations and communications worldwide is Twitter, followed by Telegram," concluding that "given the current situation, Twitter will not be unblocked." In this context, Abdol Samad Khoram Abadi, the Deputy Attorney General and Secretary of the working group for determining internet crimes, warned in August of this year that membership in filtered networks like Twitter is an offense. He emphasized that Twitter has been filtered by judicial order and that "violating a judicial order is unacceptable." While Twitter and several other social networks are banned in Iran, Mohammad Reza Rostami, the then advisor to the Minister of Sports and Youth, stated in 2015 that the average use of social networks by Iranians was "9 hours a day." ILNA's report also indicates that Mohammad Javad Azari Jahromi mentioned in the continuation of this interview that "50,000" internet job creations have been registered in Iran in the first six months of this year, with a hundred thousand jobs expected by the end of the year. Following the nationwide protests in December of this year, which led to the temporary banning of social networks Telegram and Instagram, he apologized to "hundreds of thousands" of Iranians who were "harmed" by this. Mr. Azari Jahromi promised on his personal Twitter page that "one of the government's directions to solve the unemployment problem has been and will be the development of startups and strengthening the virtual space." These two networks were blocked while Hassan Rouhani emphasized in his 100-day report of the twelfth government about the government's efforts to use the virtual space to reduce unemployment in Iran.