Iranian President Hassan Rouhani has not shied away from taking on the hardliners in Iran. In the latest factional fight, his minister of Communications firmly rejected the Judiciary’s demand that the government close down mobile messaging services of WhatsApp, Viber and Tango. “Our technical studies indicate that the number of social networks such as WhatsApp, Viber and Tango is so numerous that shutting them down is not the solution,” said Communications Minister Mahmoud Vaezi. Earlier, Hassan Rouhani received a tweet from Twitter’s co-founder, Jack Dorsey, that “he will work to make sure Iranians have access to information globally in what appears to be a reference to reducing online censorship.”
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