So Iran's President Rouhani tweeted, to Iranians, in English, on Twitter, which is illegal in Iran… does anyone smell the fishiness here, or is that just me?
Don’t believe me? See here.
It’s certainly a nice, however suspicious, gesture that the Iranian Regime wants to communicate with their people, and the world—communication, free flow of speech, ideas and opinions is vital to a healthy society and world. But this is clearly just a propaganda gesture—not real, not meaningful—or else by now Rouhani would have opened the airwaves, and the internet pages. He’d give Iranians free and safe access to all sorts of media, social media, blogs and educational websites. Then he’d tweet, in Farsi, because of course, his tweets would actually be meant for Iran’s FREE people.
You see, this tweet is offensive—an insult to the intelligence of Iranians, and those who genuinely care about the poor human rights situation in Iran. Why is it so insulting? Because it attempts to ‘charm’ those who don’t know better, those who don’t know the irony of Iran’s President using the same medium that the Regime he represents, has banned.
This, equivalent to the late Kim-Jung Il’s Hollywood movie collection (American films are illegal in North Korea), or even Turkish President Erdogan’s new $615 Million US Dollar, 1,000 room palace—cronyism and dictatorship at its best. Terrible and shameful.
I wish my mother’s homeland could be compared to Germany for its top healthcare, to Sweden for its social benefits, or Canada for its great educational system… but instead its compared to some of the world’s most backwards and disgraceful countries, considering current events. Instead, the Islamic Republic chose to play among the bad guys, instead of studying with the valedictorians—and I just don’t know why. But I digress… back to Twitter.
Something tells me that the Rouhani camp will be “communicating” like this a lot, considering the nuclear negotiations have been extended… my suggestion? TALK BACK! Tell him (@HassanRouhani) what he is doing isn’t ok—and that his use of Twitter, while Iranians are deprived of it, is illegitimate and hypocritical! Tell Twitter (@Twitter), how you feel too! Submit complaints, and send public tweets protesting the use of Twitter for propaganda by a dictatorship that denies their people the same right!
This isn’t about denying the Regime access to social media, this is about DEMANDING the free and safe access of Iran’s people to social media. But if that’s what it takes for the Regime to start upholding the Human Rights Conventions it has signed… then by all means, let’s get Rouhani, Khamenei and his Regime buds offline until proxies and VPNs are a thing of the past for all Iranians… not just Regime officials.
Story originally seen in Jahan Magazine.