Iran: mullahs terrified of expanding social media websites

 Iranian regime terrified of growing use of social media

Mullahs in the city of Qom, central Iran, have expressed serious concerns regarding the expanding use of social websites, especially by youths in Iran, and calling for firm measures by the regime’s judiciary.

“Each day hundreds of websites and networks are busy spreading rumors against religious issues, and providing blasphemy to our youths...,” said Mullah Mesbah Yazdi, a known member of Iranian supreme leader Ali Khamenei’s inner circle. “Therefore, we must constantly identify the intellectual dangers threatening our youths, and/or at least hold intimate talks with them to understand their questions and/or provide convincing answers for them.”

Mullah Makarem Shirazi also expressed his concerns over the expansion of social media networks.

“One of the more important issues in universities is preventing the growth of inappropriate cyberspace because 90% of today’s cyberspace is full of filth, and we must think of an agenda for this matter,” he said.

“Propaganda programs must be very strong. Right now there are devious programs of corrupt and misleading networks making a huge fuss. Most of the western social media networks are full of filth and they have contaminated our world,” he said on May 25^th.

“The information we are receiving about cyberspace is horrific, and judiciary officials and the public prosecutors must pay close attention to these bad cyberspace conditions,” this reactionary mullah said back in late April.

It is obvious that as senior Iranian officials have admitted time and again, and seen from their worries, they are not worried about inappropriate material on the net. What is concerning the mullahs ruling Iran is the increasing power and speed of information being provided, and ordinary people being able to  rally and campaign against this regime’s reactionary and extremist ideas. Through social media this trend can actually lead to the regime’s total destruction. The mullahs’ fanatic enmity against social media is rooted here.