Justice officials in Iran want to ban Instagram due to what they term “immoral content on the photo-sharing app”, according to local media.
The state prosecution service’s IT commissary, Javad Javadnia, said on Thursday that “Instagram unfortunately has not only illegal but immoral and obscene content.”
Authorities were presently waiting for final decision from Iran’s political leadership to implement the ban, the Isna news agency reported.
READ ALSO: New U.S. sanctions economic war, says Iranian President
Instagram is hugely popular in Iran, where millions of people use the service to share pictures and videos.
Much of the content both from outside and within the country violate the republic’s strict Islamic rules.
Twitter, Facebook and the encrypted messaging service — Telegram — are all already banned in Iran.
READ ALSO: Social media role in building Nigeria’s digital economy
Observers said that blocking social media was politically-motivated, as they were often used by critics of the regime to communicate and promote their causes.
Many Iranians used virtual private network or VPN to get around the ban.
Research by state media found that between 40 million and 45 million people had continued to use Telegram in Iran in spite of the ban.
dpa/NAN
