Media stories alleged that some members of the WGDICC had strongly recommended censuring Telegram social mobile application, while members with affiliations to the government strictly criticized the filtering of the social mobile application.
In a related story, Davoud Zareian, Head of Public Relation of Iran Telecommunications Company told reporters on Monday that Rouhani’s cabinet opposed general filtering of social apps; “no filtering will be on the horizon for Telegram social mobile application according to company’s policies in line with cabinet directives,” he added.
“I believe that only websites with critical issues should be censured and for some intermittent issues the whole application or website should not be clamped down; this is a general acceptable practice around the world as well,” Zareian asserted.
Still in different setting but related story, Police Chief Brig. Gen. Hossein Ashtari told Mehr News on Monday on the sidelines of the meetings of provincial commanders of cyber police (FATA; Persian acronym) that police supervised over the internet and had surveillance over threats to elections, which is one of the manifestations of Iran’s national sovereignty; “FATA has overwhelming domination over the cyberspace,” said police chief. On censuring Telegram social mobile application and possible role by police to supervise over the content, Ashtari said that “the Supreme Council of Cyberspace (SCC) as determine the instances of criminal content by the Judiciary and the relating workgroup, and accordingly, we act in any case where we are the necessary permits by those government bodies.”
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