Iran Unblocks Facebook and YouTube

Iran blocked the popular social networking site, Facebook in 2006, saying it was "illegal." They also blocked YouTube. But in February, Tehran unblocked both sites. Since then, the site’s Iranian membership has been growing making Facebook is the 10th most popular website in Iran.

28 year-old Hashemi, a member of Iran’s largest pro-reform student group, Daftar Tahkim Vahdat, which is a regular target of pressure from the state, says this has opened new avenues for discussion of human rights and other political passions.

"Given the fact that I’m a political and social activist, I’m also attracted to human rights issues when I’m on Facebook," Hashemi says. "I join causes that support human rights and democracy, or those that protest against human rights violations in Iran."

Iran is known for banning dissenting media.The international media watchdog, Reporters Without Borders, states that Iran has the highest number of journalists in jail in the entire Middle East.

"Iranian officials have offered no explanation for why they decided to restore access to Facebook -- or why they moved to block it in the first place. Christophe Ginisty is the president of the French group Internet Without Borders, which promotes freedom of expression online. He says some governments with a history of Internet censorship choose to open some sites not to improve their image, but to gain a surreptitious toehold in an online community frequented by political opponents and activists. "During election periods, as in the case of Iran, it allows the government to give the impression that it is offering more freedom," Ginisty says. "But that’s absolutely not what’s happening, because the first thing that happens following an opening is that filters and controls are established. It means that they reopen Facebook when they have the possibility to put people in place who can control it. Hadi Nili is a Tehran-based journalist who specializes in social and information technology issues. The Iranian government may have opted to unblock Facebook as a way to better monitor the actions of journalists, who have flocked to Facebook in droves. Nili also speculates that the unblocking of Facebook and YouTube could be a way for the government to win the support of young voters ahead of presidential elections in June."

I found out about this via a EurasiaNet. org article. It has not been reported by PressTV. I think it is safe to say that this won't be a permanent thing.