Iran moves to ban Instagram over “immoral content”

Iran is set to ban popular social media platform, Instagram over “immoral content”, a platform which the President has over two million followers.

Authorities in Iran have announced plans to ban the photo sharing app, citing national security concerns.

Iran’s National Cyberspace Council has approved steps to block Instagram, according to local reports, following crackdowns on other social media apps. Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and Telegram are already banned in the Islamic Republic, with internet providers ordered to block access to the services.

The apps have often been used as a way to spread anti-government messages, with Telegram in particular, often cited as a national security concern.

Many Iranians continue to access the services despite the bans, circumventing the technical blocks by routing traffic through an overseas internet address.

Twitter has been blocked in the country since 2009 but Rouhani has official accounts that tweet both in Persian and English. Former president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has also fostered a sizeable Twitter fanbase.

The state prosecution service’s IT commissary, Javad Javadnia, said on Thursday that “Instagram unfortunately has not only illegal but immoral and obscene content” and authorities are presently waiting for final decision from Iran’s political leadership to implement the ban, the Isna news agency reported.