SOCIAL MEDIA BEATS CENSORSHIP IN IRAN.

• Author: Petti, Matthew
• Position: WORLD

IN THE FIRST days of January, a meme spread through Iran. The image featured Telecommunications Minister Mohammad Jahromi drop-kicking the logos of Tor, an encrypted proxy network, and several social media platforms--a reference to the Iranian government's ban of the messaging service Telegram in response to protests in late December.

On January 4, the meme ended up on the front page of Ghanoon, a newspaper aligned with the country's liberal Reformist movement. The same day, Jahromi reposted it on his Instagram account along with the caption: "The National Security Council--which the Telecommunications Ministry is not part of--has decided, along with other security measures, to impose temporary restrictions on cyberspace in order to establish peace... instead of addressing the roots of the protests and unrest, some are trying to blame cyberspace."

The minister's acknowledgment that the crackdown was ill-advised would foreshadow a reversal in Iranian President Hasan Rouhani's response to the unrest.

AS SMALL ECONOMIC protests encouraged by the Conservative opposition suddenly went nationwide last year, Telegram--used by more than 13 million Iranians--lit up with both credible information and viral rumors. At first, Rouhani's Reformist administration walked the line between defending the right to "criticize and protest" and condemning "solutions to the problems of society in the streets."

Rouhani, who campaigned for reelection last year on the nuclear deal and other pro-trade measures, began his latest term calling for a more open internet. But police eventually detained several hundred people, and at least 21 were killed in street fighting. When the Telegram channel AmadNews encouraged protesters to use firebombs, Jahromi publicly asked the platform's founder, Pavel Durov, to censor the channel. Durov complied, catching flak from Edward Snowden.

Durov refused further requests by Iranian authorities, prompting the "temporary" restrictions on Telegram, which have become known as "The Filtering."

Telegram users responded, as they always do, with memes. The popular channel Talkhand-Siyasi soon filled up with sarcastic advertisements for air filters and GIFs of former president cum conspiracy theorist Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

Iran has a well-developed tradition of political caricature dating back to the 1905 Constitutional Revolution. Old-school cartoonists Mehdi Fard and Mohammad Tehani joined the contretemps, mocking Rouhani's promise that "the...