TEHRAN Internet users in Iran lost access Tuesday to Facebook and Twitter, a day after they were surprised to find that they could get on the sites without having to evade a government’s firewall that had blocked direct access to the Web sites for years.
Iranian officials said that a technical glitch resulted in the temporary unblocking of the sites, which the government had walled off from Iranian users in 2009, saying they were being used by antigovernment protesters to organize demonstrations. To reach the sites, many Iranians began using virtual private network, or VPN, software to connect through computers located outside the country, though the telecommunications ministry eventually deployed technology to block much of that kind of traffic as well.
The country’s new president, Hassan Rouhani, has promised several times to reduce Internet censorship, and several of his cabinet ministers, including the foreign minister, Mohammad Javad Zarif, have set up Facebook pages and opened Twitter accounts, some of them quite active.
Insiders say the glitch could have been caused by infighting between groups seeking to reopen the Web sites, who are struggling with hard-liners who continue to control the hardware to block Web sites. By Tuesday, Iranian officials had restored the blocks.
Read also:
Iran restores blocks on Facebook, Twitter (USA TODAY)
Tweet on Tehran? Iran Unblocks Twitter, Facebook (TIME)
Technical glitch gives Iranians access to Facebook, Twitter, official says (Reuters)
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