Lifting Social Media Ban: Iranians Now Take a Breather

Amidst the much hyped over ban on the social networking sites in Iran, the Iranian ministers including the president Hassan Rouhani have embraced the social media. Many more cabinet ministers are becoming active online encouraging others to join the sites like Facebook and Twitter. The people of Iran breathed a sigh of relief hoping that theexisting stringent restrictionsimplemented by the government over the internet usage will be lifted. Iran’s internet big brother was set up last year to monitor the activities of Iranians online in addition to the new website launched by the Iranian cyber police to tackle cyber crimes. Iran is counted in the list of “Internet Enemies”. Social media has been frowned at in many parts of the world as ruling authorities consider as a platform for organizing disquiet. Since the Arab Spring, none has rubbished the active role of social media in anti-state activisms In yet another incident Recep Tayyip Erdogan has blamed the social mediafor provoking the protests.He called it a menace to the society as the protestors had used social networking sites for mobilizing support and documenting crackdowns in the street. With Rouhani’s entry into the social media, everything is falling into place for the Iranians especially the young generation with increased internet access, improved connection speed and restoring of VPN accounts.

Infoeditor