Iran’s Chief Prosecutor said on July 1, 2017 that between 16,000 to 19,000 websites were filtered every week, according to the state-run ILNA news agency.
The judicial official called these websites “lurid” or “against religion or public chastity.”
Speaking in his weekly press conference in Tehran, Mohammad Jafar Montazeri also added that the filtering of these websites were implemented by the Group to Determine Criminal Activity in emergency online meetings.
In answer as to why a number of Telegram channels have still not been filtered, he said, “Every week between 16,000 to 19,000 lurid websites or websites that are against religion or public chastity are filtered.”
“But a number of these websites use social media and their servers are not in Iran.”
“We have given a number of these to the Ministry of Communication to ask social media websites to filter those channels and websites but there have been shortcomings and problems here,” he added.
“Recently a new guideline was approved in the Internet Supreme Council which states that websites that want to be active in Iran have to have servers in Iran and conduct their activities in our framework of regulations or we will shut them down,” he said.
