In this file photo, Iran's president Hassan Rouhani speaks during a ceremony to mark celebrations of Nawroz the Persian new year in Kabul, Afghanistan, 27 March 2014. S. Sabawoon/EPA
TEHRAN, Iran President Hassan Rouhani re-entered Iran's feverish debate on Internet censorship and gender segregation Sunday, September 7, saying neither policy was in the country's interest.
Rouhani was elected last year having pledged to be more moderate on social issues after his conservative predecessor Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's eight-year tenure, but he has encountered resistance.
Iran has a policy of filtering online content, which leaves popular websites such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube inaccessible without the use of illegal software.
Iranian authorities are also often accused of deliberately slowing down the Internet to make many websites harder to access.
The decision of Rouhani's government to approve faster 3G mobile Internet licenses for two Iranian companies last month was seen as a first step toward making Internet access easier.
But he went further Sunday and said filtering was counter-productive.
"Some people think we can fix these problems by building walls, but when you create filters, they create proxies," Rouhani said, referring to proxy servers in other countries used by Iranians to circumvent national regulations.
"This (current policy) does not work. Force does not produce results," he added, in a speech broadcast live on state television.
The 3G licenses decision caused controversy with conservative clerics and officials arguing that video call functions on smartphones could expose youngsters to "immoral content".
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Iran's Internet censorship not working Rouhani