Iran's President Hassan Rouhani says his people should have the right to think and speak freely, and to seek information on the Internet without the state's obstruction. In an interview with NBC News in Tehran, Rouhani said he will establish a "commission for citizens' rights" to deal with freedom of information issues such as internet filtering.
Free access to the Internet has emerged as one of the most urgent debates in Iran in recent weeks. Recently Iranians enjoyed a one-off day of unfiltered internet that was later attributed to a technical glitch. Iran’s foreign minister has a Facebook page where he releases frequent updates, and Islamic Republic officials are using social media sites like Facebook and Twitter in greater numbers, despite their blockage by the state's digital censors.
Esmael Ahmadimoghaddam, Chief of Iran's National Police Forces, said on Thursday that he sees no problem with targeted use of Facebook. He believes that the country’s state television has been successful in influencing global public opinion by using Twitter. And last week, Gholam-Hossein Mohseni Ejei, The prosecutor general, said that if certain conditions were met, the state could lift its ban on Facebook.
This high-level reversal of views by Iranian officials has stirred great surprise amongst Iranians. Many recall that in recent years the very same officials made some of the harshest and strangest criticisms of the Internet. Below we have assembled an overview of various controversial statements made by Iranian officials in recent years about social media. The comments reflect a traditional, conservative, and highly cynical outlook on communication technology, one that may not prove as flexible to change as many Iranians would hope.
"Facebook is the Zionist mafia's Trojan Horse," Ali Mirahmadi, Chief of Police in Semnan Province, said in August. He said Western intelligence services were using Facebook to destroy Islam and called the effort "cultural terrorism."
"Wikipedia is seemingly an internet site, but during the 33-Day War, it gave the address for most [Lebanese] fighters to Israel. Same with Google. It's true that these sites appear to serve people, but in reality they're used for gathering intelligence.” Mohammad Hassan Nami, Minister of Communications and IT, in Ahmadinejad’s government.
"Facebook and Google belong to America's security apparatus" and “the Internet has become one of Washington’s sources of intelligence gathering."Mohammad Hassan Asghari, member of National Security Commission of Iran's Majlis, said,
“[Mark Zuckerberg] Is the fourth most influential Zionist in the world." Abdolkarim Khorramabadi, advisor of cyber affairs, who also said that Facebook is for espionage and promoting Zionism and that the CIA has commended Zuckerberg for inventing this tool of espionage.
"Facebook has been identified as the cause of one-third of divorces in Iran." Ali Yeli, Chief of Police in Northern Khorasan province.
"Today the threat posed by social networks like Facebook and Twitter is graver than the threat posed by drugs." Ali Rezaei Birjondi, Friday prayer leader of Birjand city. He cautioned parents not to allow their children to use these "dangerous" social networks, because "these networks don't want the happiness of our children, instead they seek to corrupt our young people and destroy our society from within."
"If Facebook spreads corruption, disinformation, and falsehoods or tempts people to sin or empowers the enemies of Islam, it is not permitted."Ayatollah Khamenei in his Facebook fatwa.
Iranian conservatives said Facebook aids the CIA as an espionage tool and empowers the enemies of Islam, so it should be banned in the country. When Ayatollah Khamenei's office opened a Facebook page many were shocked, and the conservative news site, Alef, said that opening a Facebook account was unworthy of the office of Supreme Leader, suggesting that the government should set up alternative Iranian and Islamic social networking sites instead.
However there are some Iranian officials who have seen positive side of Facebook and Twitter. Heydar Moslehi, former Minister of Intelligence, said that social media is a "curse" unto the Iran's enemies, to the extent that the US has filtered Facebook and Twitter and reduced internet speed to control them. Two years earlier he said "enemies" have created these social media outlets but now they don't know how to deal with them as they were used by movements like Occupy Wall Street.
Esmaeil Ahmadi-Moghaddam, Chief of Iran's National Police Forces, said that Facebook has become a vehicle for "exporting the Islamic Revolution." He said that the "enemy" had created Facebook to silence the voice of the Islamic Revolution, but instead it has become a tool to export it.
But many remain unconvinced. Ayatollah Nasser Makarem Shirazi issued a fatwa last winter and asked private and public companies not to use RighTel sim-cards for mobile phones as it offered picture messages services, or MMS. He said MMS corrupts the society. Ali Taheri, The Speaker of Majlis’ Cultural Commission, also said mobile phones have caused concern for the believers because they don't always know if the images they receive will be appropriate or not.
Rouhollah Mo'men Nasab, the former head of the Ministry of Culture's centre to promote digital media, named Google Plus as America's latest espionage tool two years ago. He asked people to stay away from the new service. He said that Facebook and Twitter have seen a massive drop in users and Google Plus is invented by the US to compensate for that. Google Plus was filtered in Iran only a few days after its launch.
In a military parade last year in Esfahan the Iranian army announced publicly it is fighting against the West's "soft war" of influence through the Web. The convoy of vans was carrying billboards saying Facebook, cocaine and bad hijab are all a part of soft war on Iran.
Abdolreza Khoshnevis, head of ‘forbidding-what-is-evil committee’ in Fars province, said that his committee seeks to create a "movement for clean comments on internet." He said he needs 1000 people and by the end of the year 300,000 “clean” comments will be posted.
The Islamic Republic of Iran has invested in fighting against websites it deems inappropriate morally and gives financial assistance to those who create blogs that are concurrent with Islamic values. These individuals are known as cyber warriors and are said to receive 7,000 toman (2.5 dollars) per hour.
General Gholam-Reza Jalali, head of the Passive Defense Organization of Iran (PDOI) said last year that Irans seeks to have five million Basijis online and ten million Basiji bloggers. He said currently 10,000 members of the Basij militia are enrolled in free classes to learn about computers, internet, and blogging.
The commander of Basij force Sardar Mohamad Reza Naghdi, took a step beyond everyone else and wrote a poem about Facebook and Twitter. It was read during an event on soft war:
With his rifle he couldn't hunt me/ He has now come with enticing music and the Internet
His fleet couldn't outmaneuver me/ Now he comes with a beautiful little satellite dishes
Its bombs and missiles couldn't scare me/ Facebook and Twitter, the rumormongers have come
He attacked with chemical weapons and I still didn't back down/ With crack and heroin he now comes
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