The battle for cyber freedom! Hopes dashed!
CNN's Iran correspondent reports that there are deep gaps between President Hassan Rouhani's ideals, hopes, and promises for a freer, more moderate Iran and the established legal and judicial system, which previously tried to hide its hostility to Hassan Rouhani's moderation, but now appears to be engaged in an open and public battle with him.
According to BBC Persian: Following the announcement of the summoning of Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg to a court in Fars Province by the "Deputy Director of Information Technology and New Media of the Basij Cyberspace Center", the Shiraz Attorney General denied the news, which received international coverage within a few hours.
The Islamic Republic of Iran News Agency, IRNA, quoted Ali Al-Qasi Mehr, the Public Prosecutor and Revolutionary Prosecutor of Shiraz, as saying that there are complaints against Facebook “regarding the publication of some images and videos,” but “the news published on some virtual sites indicating that Facebook CEO Zuckerberg has been summoned by the Fars Judiciary is completely denied.”
According to IRNA, the Shiraz prosecutor's office has also denied filtering WhatsApp and Instagram applications.
Earlier, the Iranian Students News Agency reported that an Iranian judge had summoned Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook's CEO and the main founder of the social network, to a court in Fars province.
On Tuesday, May 27, the ISNA news agency published this news , quoting Ruhollah Momennasb, "Deputy Director for Information Technology and New Media at the National Basij Cyberspace Center," but did not provide further details about the name of the summoning judge or the city where he works.
Many conservatives ruling the Islamic Republic consider Facebook to be a tool for Western countries to spy on the government and a catalyst for moral deviations in Iranian society.
In his remarks on Tuesday, Mr. Momennasb called Mark Zuckerberg, the CEO of the social network Facebook, a “Zionist” and said that based on the judge’s ruling, he or his legal counsel should “apply to the judiciary of this province to defend himself and compensate for the losses.”
He also said: "The Fars Provincial Judiciary has filed a case in response to a complaint from a number of compatriots regarding the violation of their privacy and the problems with the WhatsApp messaging app and Instagram software, and this judicial authority has also voted to block and collect these two applications."
WhatsApp and Instagram, which are virtual networks for communicating between internet users, have recently come under pressure from Iranian conservatives who, contrary to the views of Hassan Rouhani's government, are seeking to filter them.
The Islamic Republic of Iran also blocked access to Facebook following protests against the results of the 2009 presidential election, although Iranian users continue to use this social network using filter breakers.
Since the inauguration of Hassan Rouhani's government, officials of the new government have spoken on various occasions about the need to remove the Facebook filter, but their stances have been met with strong reactions from conservatives.
