TEHRAN, iran — Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said websites banned in his country, including Facebook and YouTube, are part of a “great change” that his nation should be included in as every citizen has the right to access the Internet.
In a speech Saturday at a conference on information and communication technologies, Rouhani said the online world ought to be seen as an opportunity by Iran, and not something to be feared, according to Iran’s state-run Islamic Republic News Agency.
“The right of citizens to have access to international networks of information is something we formally recognize,” Rouhani was quoted as saying. “Why are we so nervous? Why don’t we trust our youth?”
Some of the world’s most visited social networking sites, including Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Tumblr, are blocked in Iran. The policy was enforced in 2009 in a response to the unrest after the disputed re-election of Rouhani’s predecessor, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
Since coming to office in August, Rouhani, a moderate cleric who has so far led a policy of engagement and dialogue with the West in an effort to resolve a dispute over Iran’s nuclear program, has made statements about the need to loosen restrictions on the media, arts and access to the Internet.
Rouhani, who also leads Iran’s Supreme Council for Virtual Space, recently overturned a decision led by a judicial committee to ban mobile messaging service Whatsapp.
In Saturday’s speech, Rouhani likened Iran’s approach to the Internet to the country’s past policy of banning video cameras, enforced throughout much of the 1980s and early 1990s, and the current prohibition of satellite dishes.
