It appears that Iran’s judiciary’s patience with President Hassan Rouhani’s communication minister has run out after previous orders to block mobile messaging services have been ignored. Gholam-Hossein Mohseni-Ejei, who is Iran’s top prosecutor and first deputy of the judiciary, wrote an open letter to Communications Minister Mahmoud Vaezi on Sept. 20 giving him a one-month deadline to shut down WhatsApp, Viber and Tango.
Mohseni-Ejei wrote, “In the last few weeks, criminal content was published and crimes were committed against Islamic modesty and morals and … widespread offensive content was published against the founder of the Islamic Republic Imam Khomeini.”