These services were blocked more than two years ago in order to limit the communication of anti-government protesters. According to the local news agency IRNA, the vote was unanimous. Iran’s Minister of Information and Communication Technologies, Satar Hashemi, called this step “the beginning of the road” to lifting restrictions on Internet access.
The minister noted that the removal of Internet filtering was one of the pre-election promises of President Massoud Pesheskian, who took office in July this year. However, many popular platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and Telegram remain blocked, and VPNs are widely used to bypass the restrictions. According to Reuters, the US has called on major technology companies to support countries with strict internet censorship.
Internet restrictions in Iran are among the strictest in the world, with more than 70% of traffic passing through filtering. After the anti-government protests, a massive blocking of the platforms was launched to limit the activities of the organizers. However, VPNs continue to grow in popularity, allowing citizens to bypass restrictions.
While this initiative will have a positive impact on Iran’s digital transformation, much more needs to be done to fully unblock other platforms.
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