ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - An Iranian lawmaker on Monday emphasized the government's plan to put an end to censorship imposed on social media platforms, expecting the restrictions to end soon, reported state media. “The removal of censorship was one of the explicit promises of the 14th cabinet before winning the elections, and the president and the minister of communications are still emphasizing achieving it,” lawmaker Mohammad Bahrami told IRNA. Citing Sattar Hashemi, the minister of communications, Bahrami said the lifting of the ban is a top priority of the incumbent government, noting that the process is nearing its final stages and will materialize “as soon as possible.” Iranian reformist President Masoud Pezeshkian, who came to power in summer, on Tuesday called for a new approach to restricted social media access following public dissatisfaction over government-imposed censorship which has intensified in recent years. In 2021, the Iranian parliament passed the User Protection Bill (Tarhe-Sianat) to disrupt access to international online services in Iran. The bill was initially passed but later revoked due to an unclear procedural process. The Iranian president directed Amin Aghamiri, the secretary of SCC, to form a committee tasked with investigating the issue and presenting a solution. The SCC was founded in 2012 with the order of Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei to limit access to social media and broadcast and monitor the prohibited activities of citizens. The Iranian government frequently cracks down on the internet during periods of heightened tensions and protests, especially in the 2022 “Women, Life, Freedom” movement sparked by the death of Kurdish woman Zhina (Mahsa) Amini while in custody of Iran’s so-called morality police and a week-long internet crackdown in response to the 2019 protests, infamously known as Bloody November.
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