Iran restricts Instagram access as a warning to protesters

Iranian students protest at the University of Tehran during a demonstration driven by anger over economic problems, in the capital Tehran on December 30, 2017.

(Image credit: STR/Getty Images)

published 31 December 2017

The government of Iran on Sunday placed what it says is a "temporary" restriction on access to social media including Instagram and an encrypted messaging app call Telegram. Demonstrators have used both to chronicle and coordinate their anti-government protests this week, and Iranian state television says the censorship decision was made at "the highest security level" to "maintain tranquility and security of society."

The CEO of Telegram said on Twitter his company refused Tehran's request to deny service to protesters, and as a result Iran blocked the app for "the majority of Iranians." Earlier Sunday, the Iranian government threatened to respond to protesters chanting "death to the dictator" with an "iron fist." Iranian Interior Minister Rahmani Fazli promised demonstrators would "pay the price," accusing them of using social media to cause "violence and fear."

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Bonnie Kristian was a deputy editor and acting editor-in-chief of TheWeek.com. She is a columnist at Christianity Today and author of Untrustworthy: The Knowledge Crisis Breaking Our Brains, Polluting Our Politics, and Corrupting Christian Community (forthcoming 2022) and A Flexible Faith: Rethinking What It Means to Follow Jesus Today (2018). Her writing has also appeared at Time Magazine, CNN, USA Today, Newsweek, the Los Angeles Times, and The American Conservative, among other outlets.