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Sun, July 17, 2011 | The Meir Amit Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center

Iran: website filtering policy: Google Plus network blocked; report on plan to unblock Facebook denied

ISNA News Agency reported last month that Google Plus, Google’s recently-launched social network, has been blocked by the authorities, making it impossible for Iranians to access it (ISNA, July 11).

At the same time, the Tabnak website reported that last month the Ministry of Telecommunications launched a new system for filtering search results on the Google and Yahoo search engines. A source in the Ministry of Telecommunications told the website that the launch of the new system was apparently the cause for the nationwide internet malfunctions on Monday, July 11. Prior to that, several Iranian websites had reported that all the websites normally restricted by the authorities suddenly became unblocked on Monday morning. For several hours Iranians had free access to all websites. The block was reinstated several hours later (Tabnak, July 11).

Meanwhile, Abdolsamad Khoram Abadi, the chairman of the committee responsible for setting website filtering criteria, denied that the committee may unblock the Facebook network. A top cyber police official claimed last month that the authorities may consider unblocking the social network if the level of public awareness on appropriate internet use increased. In this context, Abdolsamad Khoram Abadi said that the committee had made no decision to unblock Facebook, and that the issue was not on its agenda. He added that no committee member was authorized to make independent decisions on the matter. Such decisions should be made by a majority vote of the committee’s thirteen members, he said, and only the prosecutor general — the committee chairman — may publish its decisions on restrictions imposed on websites.

Khoram Abadi also discussed the use of Facebook itself, saying that defining the use of the social network as a “criminal offense” depends on how it is used. If the network is used for spreading information that compromises state security, offends the sanctity of Islam, or undermines morality, then it is considered a criminal offense. Referring to a statement made last month by a top cyber police official who said that, in itself, the use of Facebook was not a criminal offense, Khoram Abadi argued that it was not true. He called on Iran’s senior officials to avoid expressing views that may encourage young people to access websites openly hostile to the regime (Aftab News, July 9).