Makarem Shirazi: Over 90% of Cyberspace is a Swamp

Ayatollah Makarem Shirazi, a Shia cleric in Qom, emphasized the need to "prevent the spread of unhealthy cyberspaces," claiming that "over 90% of the world's cyberspace" has turned into a "swamp." In various statements made during meetings last week, this cleric compared a significant portion of cyberspace to a "swamp" and called for planning regarding it. In a meeting with the Minister of Science, Research, and Technology, published on his website, he stated that "one of the important issues in universities is to prevent the spread of unhealthy cyberspaces, as 90% of the world's cyberspace has turned into a swamp, and a plan must be devised for this issue." His remarks from this meeting on Tuesday, June 4, have been reflected on his website, but it seems that this cleric residing in Qom also has a solution for combating the "swamp of cyberspace." The following day, on June 5, his website published his statements at the beginning of his advanced jurisprudence class, where he claimed that "advertising programs must be strong; currently, the malicious programs of corrupt and misleading networks are rampant. Most Western social networks are swamps and have polluted the world." He further emphasized that "the opportunity of Ramadan should be utilized to protect the youth." This is not the first time that such comments from Ayatollah Makarem Shirazi criticizing cyberspace have been published. Earlier in early May, he mentioned in a meeting with the Minister of Health that "the information we receive regarding cyberspaces is terrifying, and judicial officials and prosecutors must pay attention to the dire conditions of cyberspace." He noted that "it has been said that over 80% of internet marriages end in divorce, and these relationships in cyberspace are very damaging," and he asked the government to "consider the harms of communication tools like Telegram." Previously, in October 2015, during a meeting with officials of the Supreme Council of Cyberspace, he emphasized that "we need a revolution in cyberspace" and that for this, "courage, will, decision, and planning" are required. In light of Ayatollah Makarem Shirazi's recent statements about cyberspace, they come just days after remarks made by the Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic, where Ayatollah Khamenei referred to cyberspace as the "real battlefield of war." In these remarks, addressed to a gathering of clerics and teachers in Tehran, the Iranian leader noted the effective role of cyberspace in "increasing religious doubts," stating that there are political motivations for "injecting false ideas into the minds of the youth," and that "clergy and students must be armed and ready to confront doubts and erroneous and deviant thoughts [in cyberspace]." These warnings come at a time when many officials and senior figures of the Islamic Republic, including the office of Ayatollah Khamenei, despite the restrictions on access to cyberspace for Iranian users, maintain an active presence on social networks and cyberspace. President Hassan Rouhani has previously emphasized the special importance of cyberspace several times, including in the first meeting of the Supreme Council of Cyberspace in 2016, where he called for "more effective and appropriate steps" to be taken in this area. On April 8 of this year, he also stressed in a meeting with the Minister of Communications and senior officials in this field that "we must eradicate corruption from the roots, and one of the ways to combat corruption is to open matters in cyberspace." In this context, "legal cases" have been formed against managers of dozens of modeling pages on Instagram, with 79% of electoral activities in cyberspace occurring on "Telegram." Awaizi: Some institutions have pressured to filter social networks. Iran; strengthening the cyber arsenal, asymmetric warfare in cyberspace. The IRGC has identified "300,000 Telegram users in Markazi province." The police in Hormozgan arrested their "critics" in cyberspace. The representative of the leader in the IRGC stated: films, newspapers, and books are a platform for foreign infiltration. A senior police official stated: social networks are tools for enemy espionage. The publication of images of a young man with several girls on "Telegram" led to his arrest. Letters from two parliamentary commissions to Rouhani for "managing the content of cyberspace."