Accessibility links

Breaking News

Iranian Official: 'Technical Glitch' Behind Brief Internet Access


An Iranian Internet official says a "technical glitch" gave Iranians brief access to the social media websites Facebook and Twitter, which are banned by Iran's government.

Abdolsamad Khorramabadi told Iran's semiofficial Mehr news agency a filter blocking access to Facebook was temporarily removed late Monday due to problems with some Internet service providers.

Khorramabadi said a special committee has been created to investigate the problem. He warned that any violation of the country's law on cyber crimes will be dealt with appropriately.

The brief opening of Iran's blocked social media sites allowed Iranians to log on to their Facebook and Twitter accounts for a few hours without needing proxy servers to get around the government firewall.

Iran's new president, Hassan Rouhani, has promised an easing of Internet restrictions.
But by early Tuesday, access in Iran to Facebook and Twitter was again blocked.
  • 16x9 Image

    VOA News

    The Voice of America provides news and information in more than 40 languages to an estimated weekly audience of over 326 million people. Stories with the VOA News byline are the work of multiple VOA journalists and may contain information from wire service reports.

XS
SM
MD
LG