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US Calls On Iran To Unblock Social Media Sites Amid Protests (go.com)

Posted by BeauHD on from the food-and-freedom dept.

The Trump administration is calling on the government of Iran to stop blocking Instagram and other social media sites while encouraging Iranians to use special software to circumvent controls. "The great Iranian people have been repressed for many years," President Trump tweeted yesterday. "They are hungry for food & for freedom. Along with human rights, the wealth of Iran is being looted. Time for change!" ABC News reports: Undersecretary of State Steve Goldstein, in charge of public diplomacy, said the U.S. wants Iran's government to "open these sites" including the photo-sharing platform Instagram and the messaging app Telegram. "They are legitimate avenues for communication," Goldstein said. "People in Iran should be able to access those sites." Iranians seeking to evade the blocks can use virtual private networks, Goldstein said. Known as VPNs, the services create encrypted data "tunnels" between computers and are used in many countries to access overseas websites blocked by the local government. Despite the blocks, the United States is working to maintain communication with Iranians in the Farsi language, including through official accounts on Facebook, Twitter and other platforms. The State Department also was to distribute videos of top U.S. officials encouraging the protesters through those and other sites.

3 of 135 comments (clear)

  1. Iran is about Iran, not about the USA by aberglas · · Score: 1, Interesting

    Our ignorance about Iran is overwhelming. How many times have we heard news reports about what "The Government" in Iran is doing without even mentioning that there are two governments in Iran. The (fairly) democratic one and the repressive Islamic one. Without understanding that, and the resulting conflicts, you understand nothing about Iran.

    Ignorant vitriol from the US and Trump does not help the difficult situation on Iran. But they are not meant to. Their purpose is purely to whip up ignorant anger in the US.

    1. Re:Iran is about Iran, not about the USA by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

      No, the revolt is orchestrated for Israel. All our wars are for The Greater Israel Project where they take over the middle east and the world. I wish we would stop fighting wars for Israel and showering them with money. They can defend themselves. They just become more powerful and dangerous and manipulate our own country to have open borders and race mixing and anti-white policies while they create a fascist pure Jewish Ethno state out of Israel and push their borders into Syrian territory.

  2. Meanwhile in Iran... by Anubis+IV · · Score: 1, Interesting

    The Trump administration is calling on the government of Iran to stop blocking Instagram and other social media sites while encouraging Iranians to use special software to circumvent controls.

    Meanwhile, Iranians are calling on the government of America to start blocking Trump from Twitter and other social media sites while encouraging Americans to use the "block" button to remove him from their feeds.