Aide to Iranian pres.: Filtering of social media has no benefits

Ali Rabiei, an aide on social affairs to President Masoud Pezeshkian, said on X: “I have no idea what’s the benefit of filtering? Show a harmful movie or piece of news you have blocked through filtering.”

Rabiei also referred to the economic impact of filtering, saying people suffer 1 billion dollars in losses annually from filtering.

He also criticized the decision to filter the social media as “irresponsible”.

The aide to the Iranian president had earlier said that some measures were being put in place to end the filtering of the internet and that people would soon see the results.

Rabiei’s comments on the issue come as Pezeshkian had promised to end the filtering during his presidential campaign several months ago among other issues.