Instagram and WhatsApp are forever filtered in Iran

Considering the events that happened, including Meta’s inattention to Iran’s letter and the recent words of the Secretary of the Supreme Council of Cyberspace, Instagram and WhatsApp will be filtered forever in Iran.

A few months ago, due to the unrest that occurred in the country, the Security Council in cooperation with the Ministry of Communications ordered the filtering of Instagram and WhatsApp. Of course, the filtering of these two popular social networks of Iranians was not the only restriction that occurred, and internet disruptions and restrictions in many other services such as Google services also caused problems for users.

Maybe from the very beginning it could have been guessed that Instagram and WhatsApp are not going to be unfiltered. For a long time, the authorities needed an excuse to block these two social networks, and the recent unrest was a good opportunity for them. Bringing up the protection plan and setting up the national information network was one of the efforts of the officials in this direction, and now we are witnessing their implementation.

Various officials of the country, including the Security Council, the National Center for Cyber ​​Space, the Ministry of Communications, and parliamentarians, considered the reason for filtering Instagram and WhatsApp to be the attempt of these social networks to create chaos and disorder in the country and cooperate with the enemy. In addition, it was some time ago that the National Center for Virtual Space sent a letter to Meta, protesting against the performance of this company as the owner of Instagram and WhatsApp, and gave Mark Zuckerberg, the owner of Meta, a 10-day deadline to cooperate with Iran and become his representative in our country. introduce Now, this 10-day opportunity has expired a long time ago, and Meta is not going to agree to cooperate with Iran. Even one of Meta’s officials said that he does not care about Iran’s request and that they are not willing to agree to negotiations.

Firouzabadi’s reaction to Meta’s non-response to Iran’s letter

A few days ago, the secretary of the Supreme Council of Cyber ​​Space, in response to Meta’s locationlessness, stated that Meta’s lack of response is a prelude to the legal authorization to block Instagram and WhatsApp. In this regard, Abolhassan Firouzabadi gave a detailed interview to one of the country’s newspapers and said:

Until today, Instagram and WhatsApp were restricted by the order of the National Security Council, but the continuation of this restriction requires permission. The assignment of this license can also be determined by the fate of negotiations with Meta. The content of the sent letter was Meta’s invitation to introduce its representative in Iran. In this letter, we mentioned the debatable issues that exist between us and Meta and we informed them that even based on Meta’s own principles, we are witnessing Instagram violations, including the publication of thousands of violent photos and material-making content. An explosion noted on a large number of Instagram pages. We are looking for a way that will lead to the continued sustainable activity of external platforms, including Instagram.

The secretary of the Supreme Council of Cyberspace continued to the question of what will happen if Meta does not introduce a representative, and answered that we have not made a decision in this regard at the moment, but we sent this letter based on the resolution of the Supreme Council of Cyberspace in 2016 that foreign messengers required to have a representative in the country.

Abolhassan Firouzabadi, Secretary of the Supreme Council of Cyberspace

Firouzabadi added that Meta has a representative office in all countries similar to ours and meets the needs of that country. In addition, Metta has taken other measures in our country that he has never done to the people of other countries; Such as closing people’s pages without notice, news sites like Jamaran, pages of ordinary people, celebrities, governors, speaker of parliament and ministers whose behavior was outside the principles they have done before.

In the end, he emphasized that the closure of Instagram is due to security conditions, but its continuation requires legal permission. Legal permission must either be issued according to the procedure in the task force for determining criminal cases, or a judge or a higher authority such as the Supreme Council of Cyberspace or the Supreme National Security Council should request it. So far, such a license has not been approved anywhere, and if Meta does not answer, it is actually a prelude to the legal license to block Instagram. Firouzabadi also stated that the letter we sent reached Meta and the receipt we received by mail confirms that they were delivered.

Always consider Instagram and WhatsApp filters

In this way, and with Meta’s indifference towards Iran’s letter and the statements made by the Secretary of the Supreme Council of Cyberspace, we should consider the work of Instagram and WhatsApp finished in Iran. Of course, as we said, from the beginning, everyone predicted that such an event would happen. Even the officials themselves, including the National Center for Cyberspace, who sent a letter to Meta, knew that Meta was never going to enter Iran and have representation and cooperate with the government of our country. Even if Meta wants to, international sanctions do not allow this American company to cooperate with Iran.

Therefore, the country’s authorities only needed an excuse to be able to filter Instagram, WhatsApp and other social networks and foreign messengers forever in Iran, and now they have this excuse.