A member of the supervisory committee of the Islamic Consultative Assembly announced that a session has not yet been convened to review the Minister of Communications’ request and the latest actions regarding the reconsideration of online content filtering.
According to IDEA, Mehdi Baqeri, in response to the Minister of Communications’ request for the reconsideration of some filtered services, stated: “The examination of the Minister of Communications’ request and the latest actions regarding filtering should be pursued through the secretariat of the working group or the Attorney General’s office. The subject matter and documents will be presented according to the session agenda, and members will be kept informed and cast their votes. At present, no session has been convened regarding the Minister’s request, which is based on the notion that certain services have introduced features that address the concerns of the committee responsible for determining criminal content, but have not yet been addressed.”
He expressed his views on filtering and the review of filtering for some services: “We certainly agree that obstacles to people’s access to better online services should be removed, and when Mr. Minister has expert opinions in this regard, we are interested in cooperating. However, the philosophy behind having multiple members from various places in the session is to present different perspectives and expert opinions, otherwise, there would be no need for the session, and Mr. Minister or the Ministry of Communications could simply voice their opinions.”
Baqeri concluded by stating, “My and the commission’s fundamental principle has always been to be facilitators and not interested in secrecy, restrictions, or blocking.”
Eisa Zarepour, the Minister of Communications and Information Technology, had previously stated on the sidelines of a government meeting last week regarding the possibility of reviewing certain services and the status of lifting the filter on the Google Play service: “Restrictions imposed on some services require reconsideration, and the Ministry of Communications is actively pursuing the removal of access restrictions on certain services where the rationale behind their restrictions no longer exists.” According to him, some services have introduced features that address the concerns raised by the committee responsible for determining criminal content, and these are open to review.
No Comment! Be the first one.