Azari Jahromi: The government of Pezeshkian should quickly find a solution to lift the filtering.
Mohammad Javad Azari Jahromi, the former Minister of Communications, said that the digital economy has a core, which is telecommunications, and its drivers must work well. Today, the drivers of the digital economy have problems and suffer from two issues: one is market suppression due to filtering, and filtering has also led to data suppression in the country. Our international traffic consumption in 2024 is less than the traffic of 2021, and if it is not less, it has not increased. The policy of the twelfth government in developing the internet in deprived areas added thirty million users to the country’s internet.
Jahromi continued, today we are facing price suppression and traffic suppression in the internet space, and the activities of our operators have turned from economic activities to ideological ones, which is not economically viable. Also, some friends believe that filtering is the solution to counter threats.
He stated that filtering was experienced for three years but was not a solution, and the 2024 election campaign proved that all groups find filtering ineffective, and all candidates emphasized the ineffectiveness of filtering. Even Mr. Jalili, who was a continuation of the thirteenth government, also found filtering ineffective. Such consensus among candidates was rarely seen on any other issue. Filtering in the thirteenth government was a difficult experience, and it seems there is a consensus to solve this problem, and the government must quickly find a solution for it.