Iran's Minister of Communications Calls for Reevaluation of Twitter Filtering

Iran's Minister of Communications and Information Technology states that the smart filtering of Instagram has been halted since Wednesday, July 19. He simultaneously urged the filtering criteria working group to reconsider the filtering of Twitter. Mahmoud Vaezi mentioned that Iranian officials are set to negotiate with Instagram managers regarding 'content moderation.' He stated, 'Some topics are unacceptable according to our laws, regulations, traditions, and culture, and they have announced their readiness to comply with these issues on this network in Iran.' However, Mr. Vaezi announced that 'smart filtering will no longer be implemented on Instagram.' The Minister of Communications also commented on the extensive use of Twitter by many Iranian officials, saying, 'The working group for determining the criteria for criminal content should reconsider the filtering of Twitter.' While Twitter is filtered in Iran, many officials and authorities of the Islamic Republic are active on this social media platform, including the office of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the leader of Iran, Hassan Rouhani, the president, and Mohammad Javad Zarif, the foreign minister. 'Smart filtering' in Iran began in winter 2014 with the filtering of the Instagram social network. The Minister of Communications previously stated that the filtering of Instagram has been 83% successful, and this ministry intends to extend the software used for filtering this network to other social media platforms. Nevertheless, he stated on Wednesday that 'if the problem is resolved at the source,' the smart filtering equipment will be used 'elsewhere.' In smart filtering, access to websites is not completely restricted; rather, parts of the site's content identified by this software are made inaccessible to Iranian users. The 'Working Group for Determining the Criteria for Criminal Content on the Internet' is a body headed by the Attorney General and includes senior political, security, and judicial officials responsible for internet filtering in Iran. The issue of filtering social networks has been a contentious topic between the executive and judicial branches in recent months. The Deputy Attorney General for Cyber Space stated on July 15 that over eight thousand Telegram channels identified as 'against the security of the country' have been recognized, and even orders to close some of them have been sent to the Ministry of Communications more than 40 times, but they have not yet been filtered. Abdolsamad Khorramabadi announced that 3,300 Telegram channels are blocked weekly, stating, 'More than 30% of criminal channels operate against the security of the country. However, the Ministry of Communications easily claims that Telegram does not implement our orders.' The government of Hassan Rouhani has repeatedly stated that it does not seek to block social networks but rather implements a 'smart filtering' policy regarding them. Meanwhile, the admins of five pro-government Telegram channels were arrested before the presidential elections, and there has been no news about their status for over three months. On June 30, 30 members of parliament wrote a letter to the Minister of Intelligence requesting a report on the reasons for the arrest of the admins of the pro-government Telegram channels and the status of their accusations.