Instagram Accounts of Iran Guards Commanders Blocked

The Instagram accounts of several Iranian Revolutionary Guards commanders have been blocked, the Tabnak news website reported Tuesday, with the photo-sharing website saying it was complying with US sanctions.

The United States announced on April 8 that it has placed the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, the ideological army of the Islamic republic, on their list of "foreign terrorist organizations.”

Tabnak, a site close to Iranian conservatives, said Instagram blocked the accounts of Major General Mohammad Ali Jafari, Major General Mohammad Bagheri and Major General Ghassem Soleimani.

Access to Soleimani's account, which was working last week, was denied on Tuesday.

"Sorry, this page isn't available," read a message on the account.

 "The link you followed may be broken, or the page may have been removed."

Contacted by AFP, an Instagram spokesperson said it was operating "under the constraints of US sanctions laws.”

"We work with appropriate government authorities to ensure we meet our legal obligations, including those relating to the recent designation of the IRGC," the spokesperson added.

Iran's Telecommunications Minister Mohammad-Javad Azari Jahromi appeared to be referring to Instagram's move with a tweet on Tuesday.

"When you tear out a man's tongue, you aren't proving him a liar, you're only telling the world that you FEAR what he might say," he wrote on Twitter.

Facebook, Twitter and the Telegram messenger service are officially banned in Iran, making Instagram the only major social media service accessible in the country without the use of a virtual private network, or VPN, to bypass censorship.

Photo: IRNA

Iran IT Minister Says Blocking Instagram Would Create New Problems

Iran's information technology minister said Tuesday that blocking the photo- and video-sharing application Instagram would only create new problems for the Islamic republic.

"We believe the strategy of filtering Instagram is not an efficient one to neutralize its threats and might even intensify them," Mohammad-Javad Azari-Jahromi told ISNA news agency on the sidelines of a conference on electronic banking in Tehran.

“Acting unilaterally and filtering will not solve any problems on its own, but will only cause challenges in other fields," he said.

In January, Iranian media said the judiciary was mulling a ban on Instagram.

The deputy for cyberspace affairs at the public prosecutor's office, Javad Javidnia, has called Instagram a "disaster" for Iranians and especially its youth, charging the app was being used for "crimes.”

"Some says that using Instagram has consequences and that it poses threats, yet many believe that it hosts many businesses and is an important tool in their everyday life," said Azari-Jahromi.

Iran's economy is suffering under US sanctions reimposed after Washington withdrew in May from the 2015 nuclear deal between Tehran and world powers.

Iran has in recent years blocked access to social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube, and the judiciary blocked the Telegram messaging app in May.

Instagram remains the last major platform not blocked in the Islamic republic.

Despite the restrictions, Iranians including top officials like President Hassan Rouhani and the IT minister use services such as Twitter, which are widely accessible via proxy servers.

Photo Credit: IRNA

Resisting New Technology is 'Outdated' Says Iran's Rouhani

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani on Monday said resistance against new technologies is "outdated" as he once again criticized the judiciary's blocking of social media.

"Resisting new technologies and modern developments is an outdated approach," Rouhani said in a speech broadcast by state television.

"We can see that some still oppose new phenomena especially those related to communication and information," he added.

Iran in recent years has blocked access to many social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube and in May the judiciary blocked the Telegram messaging app.

In May Rouhani said the government does not approve of the judiciary's blockage of Telegram—the country's most popular social network with some 40 million users or around half the population. 

In his speech Monday he said preventing Iranians from accessing social would amount to creating a forbidden fruit which they would crave more.

"Filtering is not the solution. We must raise the society's digital literacy so that they can use it (social media) without being harmed by it," Rouhani said.

"We don't have free media in Iran and only have state television and radio," he said.

"Everything is congested in the cyberspace ... everyone wants to say everything in this space since they don't have any other media," he added.

In January, Iranian media said the judiciary was mulling banning Instagram, the last major platform still freely available in the country.

Despite social media restrictions, Iranians including top officials such as Rouhani himself and Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif continue to use services such as Twitter, which are widely accessible via proxy servers.

Photo Credit: IRNA

Iran Bans Foreign Social Media Networks in Schools

Iran's ministry of education on Sunday banned the use of foreign social media networks in schools, the ILNA news agency reported, amid a push by Tehran to limit the influence of outside online platforms.

Schools must "only use domestic social networks" for their communication, the ministry said in a statement, according to the reformist-linked news agency.

Telegram is the most popular social network in Iran. In 2017, the app claimed it had 40-million monthly users in the Islamic Republic.

Instagram is also very popular, and companies in Iran—like elsewhere—often use both platforms to communicate directly with customers. 

Less used, Facebook and Twitter are blocked in Iran, but easily accessible using a virtual private network (VPN).

During a wave of protests that hit dozens of Iranian cities over at the start of the year, Iranian authorities temporarily banned Telegram, accusing the app of allowing foreign-based "counter-revolutionary" groups to fuel unrest. 

Since then, authorities have sought to develop Iranian social media networks and limit the reliance on foreign-based platforms, which Tehran accuses of hosting sites deemed hostile to the Islamic Republic. 

Several Iranian platforms offering services similar to Telegram have emerged in recent months, like the Soroush network, which already claims to have five million subscribers. 

According to the official IRNA news agency, Telecommunication Minister Mohammad-Javad Azari Jahromi recently pledged Iranian networks would offer the same guarantees of confidentiality as foreign platforms. 

"No message is read, and no (personal) information is communicated to anyone," he told parliament. 

In a statement recently posted to his website, Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said the government should guarantee the "security and privacy" of people on the internet.

Khamenei called intrusions into online privacy "haram", or prohibited from a religious standpoint. 

Iranian media has appeared to encourage people to join the new networks by assuring viewers they will continue to operate even if Telegram is again banned.

Photo Credit: Mehr