Tonight Facebook will be posting on their blog that they’ve launched the Persian translation of the site to help those in Iran communicate more effectively. What’s not as clear is if Iran has unblocked access to Facebook which had been difficult to access from within the country according to numerous sources. This evening Facebook stated that, “because of the sudden increase in activity we decided to launch it sooner than planned.”
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One of the world’s most hardline leaders may soon lose his position as the President of Iran thanks to the increasing level of free public expression, much of which appears to be taking place on Facebook. Only three weeks ago I wrote about Iran blocking Facebook, but within days the site was back up and running. Mirhossein Mousavi, the opposition candidate, and former Prime Minister, has experienced tremendous growth in his Facebook Page from around 5,000 fans just a few weeks ago to almost 40,000 as of today.
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This morning I’ve been receiving numerous reports that Iran has blocked Facebook. After doing a little searching around I found an article stating that it was blocked “to prevent supporters of the leading opposition candidate from using the site for his campaign.” Mir Hossein Mousavi has attracted over 5,200 supporters on the site. While it’s far from a majority of voters, it was clearly the beginning of a movement that the Ahmadinejad regime was not a fan of.
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With the new Facebook terms of service ready to be passed, many are practically oblivious to the fact that the Facebook Governance vote ever took place but some of them may become aware once Facebook is no longer available to them. One statement in the latest Facebook terms has a few Iranians concerned, that they may no longer be able to use the site, even though Iran is no longer blocking Facebook.
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