Iran bans SNS WeChat
- By Zhang Rui
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E-mail China.org.cn, December 27, 2013
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Tencent's Wechat service has been reportedly banned in Iran. [File photo] |
Iran has banned a Chinese social networking service, Fars News Agency reported on Dec. 21.
The report cited Mahmoud Khosravi, managing director of Iran's Telecommunication Infrastructure Company, as saying that the Iranian Committee for Determining Criminal Web Content had decided to block access to Tencent's WeChat program.
WeChat, a mobile text and voice messaging service similar to WhatsApp, is highly popular among young people and retailers in Iran. The app has more than 100 million users outside mainland China, though it is unknown how many are in Iran.
The Committee for Determining Criminal Web Content, which is headed by the attorney general of Iran, was established in 2009 and has 13 members, including six ministers from President Hassan Rouhani's cabinet.
Iran has censored or blocked Internet content and services, including foreign news websites, porn sites and social networks. Facebook, Twitter, Gmail, Hotmail and Yahoo mail are all blocked in Iran, though more computer savvy users are still able to access them via proxies.
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