Cleric claims social media feeding unrest
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — A hard-line cleric leading Friday prayers in Iran’s capital called on the Islamic Republic to build its own social media, blaming popular international messaging apps for the unrest that accompanied days of protests over the country’s flagging economy.
The demonstrations began on Dec. 28 and quickly spread across the country, prompting the government to suspend access to the messaging app Telegram, which was being used to publicize the protests, and briefly block the Instagram photo-sharing site. Twitter and Facebook were already banned.
With travel restricted across Iran, a nation of 80 million people roughly two-and-a-half times the size of Texas, online videos and images posted by activists have provided some of the only glimpses into the demonstrations, the largest in nearly a decade, which have mainly been held in the provinces.
Such images provide only a limited view of events on the ground, and easily can be manipulated. All of Iran’s radio and television stations are run by the state.
“Cyberspace was kindling the fire of the battle,” Ayatollah Ahmad Khatami told thousands of worshipers gathered in Tehran. “When cyberspace was closed down, the sedition was stopped. The nation does not support a social network that has its key in the hands of the United States.”
Amid the unrest and antigovernment rallies that began last week, Iran has also seen three days of pro-government demonstrations, with crowds in the tens of thousands.
On Thursday, Interior Minister Abdolreza Rahmani Fazli said about 42,000 people at most took part in the week of antigovernment protests, saying they went on as long as they did because of the “leniency, restrain, tolerance and interaction” of the government. He did not elaborate.
Fazli’s comments marked the first government estimate of participation in the protests and appeared timed so authorities could contrast it against the mass crowds brought together for the pro-government demonstrations.
The government’s move to block Telegram may have seriously curtailed protesters’ ability to organize. The app boasts an estimated 48 million users in Iran, more than half the population.
At least 21 people have been killed in the unrest surrounding the protests, which began last week over rising food prices and soaring unemployment before spreading to cities across nearly all of Iran’s provinces. Authorities say the protests are waning.