Sep 22, 2014

It appears that Iran’s judiciary’s patience with President Hassan Rouhani’s communication minister has run out after previous orders to block mobile messaging services have been ignored. Gholam-Hossein Mohseni-Ejei, who is Iran’s top prosecutor and first deputy of the judiciary, wrote an open letter to Communications Minister Mahmoud Vaezi on Sept. 20 giving him a one-month deadline to shut down WhatsApp, Viber and Tango.

Mohseni-Ejei wrote, “In the last few weeks, criminal content was published and crimes were committed against Islamic modesty and morals and … widespread offensive content was published against the founder of the Islamic Republic Imam Khomeini.”

He wrote that the content was published on mobile messaging services such as “WhatsApp, Viber and Tango, some of which are managed technically and content-wise outside of the country by countries that are hostile to the system of the Islamic Republic of Iran.”

Mohseni-Ejei wrote that it’s been three months that Vaezi and his ministry had agreed to close certain social media networks and filter content and provide domestic social media websites, but “unfortunately, no productive action has taken place.”

“Therefore, with the orders of the head of the judiciary, Ayatollah Sadegh Larijani, a one-month maximum has been provided to take immediate action to prepare the necessary technical platforms for closing and controlling information on the aforementioned social networks,” Mohseni-Ejei wrote.