Rouhani’s Gov’t to Open Up Iran’s Political Atmosphere: ICT Minister

Minister of communications and information technology, Mohammad-Javad Azari Jahromi, says all institutions of the Islamic establishment see eye to eye when it comes to countering counter-revolutionary elements operating in the virtual space.

However, he said, the necessity of tackling counter-revolutionary elements should not turn into a pretext to label political opposition as counter-revolutionaries and block the country’s political landscape. He said the government intends to open up the country’s political atmosphere.

Touching upon anti-revolutionaries’ activities in the cyberspace, he said, “Counter-revolutionary elements seek to create public discontent, and we shouldn’t further fuel that.”

The ICT minister then touched upon recent remarks by judicial officials regarding Telegram and counter-revolutionary channels.

“Comments by the country’s prosecutor general, who said he didn’t want to block the cyberspace, are promising. All constituents of the establishment have the same opinion on counter-revolutionaries’ activities in the cyberspace in the country, and they cannot afford to see this space be used for acting against people’s mental security and spreading hate and lies,” the minister noted.

“We all agree that anti-revolution channels which hatch plots and disrupt people’s mental security and their investments in the country mustn’t be allowed to work, and we are seriously working to limit their activities.”

He said we are also dealing with numerous cases where people have come to the ministry and asked it to tackle anti-revolution activities.

“The enemy should know that the administration (the executive branch) and the Judiciary do not have differences in this regard and have the same opinion.”

Azari Jahromi’s comments came after a channel in the Telegram messaging app started raising false allegations against the country’s top officials, particularly the Judiciary Chief Ayatollah Sadeq Amoli Larijani. The counter-revolutionary channel’s activities have sparked controversy in Iran over the need to restrict the activities of such online services.