Current Events

Daily Star: Facebook is a “blessing” that helps freedom-seeking movements challenge tyranny, a former president of Iran – which routinely blocks access to the social networking site – was quoted as saying in a report by the ISNA news agency.

“We see that a Facebook page costing nothing can outstrip several television and radio outlets, and can influence millions of people,” said Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, according to a ISNA report published Tuesday and relayed by several newspapers and online sites since. “Or a video clip captured by a mobile phone goes viral and is seen by the world. This, in my opinion, is a blessing,” Rafsanjani, who now chairs an advisory body to Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, was quoted as saying.

Iran systematically blocks Internet access to Facebook as part of a strict censorship of online content. The popular video-sharing site YouTube, non-English Google sites and millions of foreign media pages are also barred >>>