IRAN BLOCKS FACEBOOK AFTER NASTY WALL MESSAGE

May 25 2009

Tehran, Iran – The rise of Facebook has been unlike anything in the history of modern media. The explosion of growth the site has enjoyed in the two years since being opened up to everyone is matched only by the mindshare and almost ubiquitous nature it currently enjoys. Unlike its social networking sibling MySpace, Facebook has a
grasp on people of all age groups and backgrounds, integrating itself into the day to day lives of people across the world. With that level of integration and importance in people’s lives though, some people live and die by the fortunes of the site.

Such is the case with Iran, who temporarily blocked access to the site for everyone in the country before recanting and lifting the ban hours later. So far there has been a lot of speculation as to why the country suspended access to the website in this country of at least 21 million internet users. Much of the centres on the fan page for Mir Hossein Mousavi, an opposition candidate in next month’s elections, after he received over 5000 fans but after President Ahmadinejad spoke out against the ban many are wondering if he didn’t receive an illicit message.

“Because people invest so much of their lives in Facebook, when something negative happens it can be jarring and cause a reactionary response in those users. Whether that type of reaction is the result of their complete reliance on the site or that the type of people who would react so violently to those comments are the ones drawn to the site on an almost obsessive level,” said Scrape TV Psychology analyst Dr. Sarah Welp. “Of course in many of those cases people simply un-friend the offending party or in exterem cases take a leave from the site. Most people don’t have the ability to shut down access to the site for an entire country.”

With more than 70 million people, Iran far exceeds the limits for the number of friends Facebook will allow. In most cases users are limited to 5000 friends, though fan pages and groups are unlimited.

“When MySpace became big it became a platform for launching artists, particularly musicians, and that in turn helped to propel the site. That has waned significantly for MySpace and the most obvious reason would be the relative decline of the site itself, but despite concerted efforts Facebook has had little success in that area indicating that the medium itself has limits,” said Scrape TV Media analyst Sarah Piper. “That calls into question the reasoning that a fan page caused the blocking of the site as Facebook has never proven itself as a platform for promotion. Iran blocking the site for that reason would just be totally irrational, something no one would expect from a responsible government like that of Iran.”

The web has become intrigued by the possibility of an offence directed towards Ahmadinejad, prompting a flurry of activity on the site as users across the world try to friend the President’s friends, hoping to find someone who saw a post before it was deleted.

“It could very well have been something that doesn’t show up in a newsfeed. He may have been contacted by an old girlfriend or someone could have put up an embarrassing photo from college and refused to take it down, prompting the shutdown. The truth is we may never know but the unfortunate reality is that more and more incidents like this may occur whether in Iran or elsewhere. Everyone has skeletons and now they can be easily exposed to the rest of the world,” continued Piper. “Unfortunately for most people they don’t have the kind of options that someone like Ahmadinejad has if someone is nasty to them or brings up uncomfortable memories. Regular people just have to deal with it, one of the unfortunate realities of the social networking age.”

Facebook retains all pictures and posts on their servers though to date has not yet given the public access to deleted information though many are hoping.      

Martin Philton, Technology Correspondent

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