Member of Iran’s Majlis Judiciary Committee Hojjat ol-Eslam Musa Ghazanfarabadi says Iranians are not allowed to circumvent the current filtering system of Islamic Republic. At this time, millions of Iranians are using various methods and technologies to bypass governmental restrictions.
“According to commerce laws, which have been ratified by Iran’s Judiciary service and parliament, citizens are not allowed to circumvent Internet filtering systems. Of course, Iran’s Cyber Police and Judiciary are free to arrest and punish those violates these rules.” Hojjat ol-Eslam Musa Ghazanfarabadi said in an interview with state television.
He also went on to elaborate the official stance of Islamic Republic against social networking websites such as Facebook and Twitter. “Operations of these networks are naturally allowed in our country as long as their activities and contents comply with Islamic rules and guidelines. But we have noticed that a large number of clients are posting and uploading illegal media files which include pornographies. Islamic Republic cannot tolerate such behaviors from users on this subject.”
Currently most of famous and popular social networking websites are officially blocked in Iran. The authorities of Islamic Republic have different views about the operations of these networks. To date, none of Iranian officials have opened account in social networking websites.
Some studies suggest that Iranians have registered around 6 million accounts only in Facebook. The U.S-based network is not listed among top 50 websites in Iran, according to Alexa ranking system.