OPINION

Try as it may, Iran can't ban social media platforms

News, Esfandyar Batmanghelidj, Published on 11/01/2019

» Iran's National Cyberspace Council is planning to block Instagram, the last social-media platform freely accessible in the country. This is unlikely to trouble Iranian Instagrammers, who will continue to use the platform through virtual private networks, or VPNs, that route traffic through internet connections abroad. This workaround allows Iranians to evade government filters and access banned platforms like Twitter, Facebook and YouTube, and apps like WhatsApp and Telegram.