Mohammad Javad Azari Jahromi’s, Iran’s Minister of Information and Communications Technology, has publicly faulted the Tehran establishment on its stance on social media.
Jahromi Tweeted that “Technology is not intrinsically guilty, corrupt, or deviant,” he added. “It is human beings who misuse it to promote crime and corruption in the virtual world, just as they do in real life.”
The Minister’s opinion is quite different from that of the President Hassan Rouhani and ultra-conservatives who control the judiciary and security services as he went ahead to tweet that.
“Even if we ban the use of software, other software will be found and information will start to circulate freely again,” Jahromi wrote.
A Tehran judge, Monday, ordered the blocking of Telegram, the judiciary’s Mizan Online news agency said, following accusations that the app has allowed armed opposition groups to fuel unrest.
The ruling follows a presidential directive banning all government workers from using foreign messenger apps to communicate.
During a wave of protests that hit dozens of Iranian cities early this year, authorities temporarily banned the app, saying it enabled foreign-based “counter-revolutionary” groups to stir tensions.
