Iran in talks to unblock Twitter, says new minister

People holding mobile phones are silhouetted against a backdrop projected with the Twitter logo in this illustration picture taken in Warsaw, on September 27, 2013. (File Photo by Reuters)

TEHRAN: Iran鈥檚 new communications minister said Tuesday that negotiations were underway with Twitter to unblock the service, which has been banned for years despite being used even by the country鈥檚 supreme leader.
The micro-blogging platform was barred at the time of mass anti-regime protests in 2009 that followed allegations of massive rigging in the re-election of president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
鈥�(Twitter) has announced that it is prepared to negotiate to resolve problems,鈥� Mohammad-Javad Azari Jahromi told the Iran daily newspaper.
鈥淐onsidering the current situation there are grounds for such negotiation and interaction. Twitter is not an immoral environment needing to be blocked,鈥� he added.
The 36-year-old Jahromi became Iran鈥檚 youngest-ever minister this week, and the first to be born after the 1979 Islamic revolution.
His selection has been criticized by rights groups over his involvement in surveillance during and after the mass anti-regime protests of 2009.
He rejected the criticism in a meeting with lawmakers this week, saying: 鈥淚 wasn鈥檛 responsible for surveillance 鈥� I was in charge of the technical infrastructure for the surveillance industry, and I consider it an honor.鈥�
But Jahromi is also seen as a critic of online censorship in Iran, where platforms like Facebook, YouTube and Twitter remain banned even if millions use them daily through easily available privacy software.
He said officials were also looking at ways to unblock YouTube while still censoring 鈥渋mmoral content鈥� on the video-sharing service, and that a pilot project would allow universities to access the site.
There was no immediate response from Twitter or YouTube.
Jahromi added that the final decision on unblocking sites lay with Supreme Council for Cyberspace, which includes members of the hard-line judiciary.
The 2009 protests were considered the first time that Twitter and social media were widely used to organize protests 鈥� a model replicated when the Arab Spring movement erupted across the region the following year.
鈥淎t that time and based on remarks made by the director of this network, Iran鈥檚 government believed they had interfered in the country鈥檚 internal affairs and for this reason Twitter was filtered,鈥� said Jahromi, who has more than 4,000 followers on the service.
Despite the ban, Twitter is widely used by supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who has official accounts in several languages, as well as President Hassan Rouhani and Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif.
Even Ahmadinejad joined the service this year.
But many conservatives remain worried about 鈥淲estern infiltration鈥� through social media.
In December 2016, Friday prayer leader Ayatollah Mohammad-Ali Movahedi Kermani, who heads the Committee for the Promoting Virtue and Prohibiting Vice, said the dangers of the Internet were even greater than women failing to wear a headscarf.
鈥淏ad hijab is a bad thing but cyberspace is a hundred times worse,鈥� he said in a speech to religious officials, highlighting the presence of porn and anti-religious sites.
鈥淐yberspace can uproot religion and Islam completely,鈥� he said.
Rouhani is thought to have favored lifting the Twitter ban for some time, having even exchanged words with the site鈥檚 co-founder Jack Dorsey back in 2013.
鈥淕ood evening, President. Are citizens of Iran able to read your tweets?鈥� Dorsey posted shortly after Rouhani鈥檚 first election win.
Rouhani replied: 鈥淓vening, @Jack... my efforts geared 2 ensure my ppl鈥檒l comfortably b able 2 access all info globally as is their #right.鈥�