Iran’s State-Owned Online Service Platforms Choose Profit Over Government Policy

After Kayhan Daily editor Hossein Shariatmadari accused Iran’s online service platforms of siding with Iran’s “enemies” in the culture war over the hijab, a former minister of information and communications technology and intelligence officer disclosed that most of those online platforms are partially owned by government agencies. This revelation suggests that some of Iran’s partially state-owned online service platforms have chosen profit over government policy.

• August 13: Shariatmadari, in an editorial for hard-line Kayhan Daily, called for further restriction of Persian-language online platforms. According to Shariatmadari, Iran-registered online platforms – such as Snapp!, a vehicle for hire company; TAPSI, a ride-sharing company; Digikala, an e-commerce company; Taaghche, an online bookstore; Divar, a trading platform for secondhand products; Filmo, an on-demand streaming service; Aparat, a video-sharing service; and Rubika, a social media platform – constitute a realm outside of government control:
  • “Take a glance at the performance of some of the most popular online platforms. What do you see? Illegality, delinquency, cooperation with the enemies of the people of the land of Iran, assisting the enemy against their own homeland … When tens of millions of the people of this nation rose in protest against the violation of the hijab legislation, some of these online platforms released photos of their female employees without the hijab … These online platforms have morphed into a parallel government that treads upon current law.”
  • Concluding the editorial, Shariatmadari wrote: “If such service platforms are necessary, why are they not taken over by the government so they can be managed by qualified individuals and directly managed by the regime? Why should they not be owned by the regime?”
• August 13: According to reformist Entekhab News, in response to the Kayhan editorial, Mohammad-Javad Azari Jahromi, Iran’s former minister of information and communications technology, said: “Revolutionary institutions,” referencing institutions established after the 1979 revolution to counterbalance the bureaucracy, “already own a considerable share of the stocks of some of the platforms he mentions.”

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