The government does not aim to block social networks, announced the minister of communications and information technology on the sidelines of a cabinet meeting earlier on Wednesday.
However, Mahmoud Vaezi called on citizens to be more mindful of ethical issues while working with the social media.
He rejected the report that the ministry has blocked some social networks, saying that officials have developed some Iranian alternatives, which are expected to be welcome by users.
According to the minister, the Supreme Council of Cyberspace (SCC) will hold a meeting later this week to discuss the issue of mass text messaging, an issue that has raised objection among mobile users.
Mass text messaging are generally referred to advertising or promotional messages sent on a daily basis to hundreds of thousands of mobile users.
On a national information network, the ministers said the Fifth Five-Year Economic Development Plan included articles about establishing the network but the project will take two more years to be implemented.
He said the private sector is not allowed to be involved in the development process of the project but added that it “can participate in other phases.”
On the “smart filtering” issue, Vaezi noted that it is a complicated project and the government has no plans at the moment to apply such a system.
The ministry announced a few months ago that it would introduce a new mechanism, called smart filtering, to block “inappropriate” material or websites from reaching Iranian users.
