Iranian lawmakers want Twitter ban – but tweet themselves

Forty ultra-conservative lawmakers in Iran want access to Twitter to be banned by law, according to a newspaper report.

They want the use of data tunnelling, with which users can gain access to banned sites, to be punished in the future, the newspaper Etemad reported on its online edition on Tuesday.

In Iran, thousands of websites are blocked by the state. However, there is a catch: more than two thirds of the legislators tweet themselves.

 

According to research by the newspaper, 28 of the 40 members of the Iranian parliament have already tweeted a total of 5,920 messages.

Almost all leading politicians in the country are active on Twitter, including President Hassan Rouhani, Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, and even officials from the conservative camp and hardliners.

Iranians mostly simply ignore the Internet bans, gaining access to censored sites via data tunnels, such as virtual private networks (VPNs). According to a recent study, more than half of the 82 million Iranians are members of at least one of the banned social networks.    (dpa)