Yahoo! reports:
Iran's President Hassan Rouhani has vetoed a plan to ban WhatsApp, following a row over censorship of the popular messaging application, media reports said Wednesday.
Access to social networks, including Twitter and Facebook, are routinely blocked by Iranian authorities, as are other websites considered un-Islamic or detrimental to the regime.
The policy is contentious and the move to filter WhatsApp has caused a rupture between Rouhani's administration and a 13-member committee responsible for Internet censorship.
The reformist Sharq daily reported that Rouhani has ordered the WhatsApp ban, proposed shortly after Facebook bought the messaging service for $19 billion in February, be stopped.
"The issue of banning WhatsApp was raised. The president has ordered a halt on (banning) the site," Telecommunications Minister Mahmoud Vaezi was quoted as saying.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 08 2014, @01:43PM
Luckily, he also vetoed the camel fucking ban.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by AnonTechie on Thursday May 08 2014, @01:46PM
This would probably be the first action of it's kind where the President has over-ruled the Committee on Censorship. Will this be a harbinger for change or is this action meant to appease a section of the international community ??
Albert Einstein - "Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former."
(Score: 5, Informative) by Thexalon on Thursday May 08 2014, @02:55PM
Hassan Rouhani was elected with strong support from younger Iranians in large part because he ran on a platform of trying to reform the Iranian government, liberalize the social regulation imposed by the religious government, and negotiate with the US and EU.
Since his election, Rouhani has:
- Attempted to reform the Iranian government, with some success.
- Negotiated a tenuous but holding agreement with the US and EU.
So this move, while potentially creating enemies for him among more the religious-minded, is entirely in keeping with his politics.
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by ikanreed on Thursday May 08 2014, @09:03PM
Yeah, it can be hard, sometimes, for people to remember that other nations have politics as contradictory, tense, and confusing as their own.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 08 2014, @03:02PM
I guess it only means that the Prez in a whatsapp luser. Can't say I'm surprised.
(Score: 1) by Joe Desertrat on Friday May 09 2014, @02:26AM
Coming up on Al-Alam News, President vetoes rule from Committee on Censorship. Head comes off at 11!