Iran's Supreme Leader calls for regulation of cyberspace

Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, who has imposed some of the strictest controls on internet access in the world, said on Tuesday that cyberspace needed to be regulated, citing the arrest of messaging app Telegram founder Pavel Durov in France as an example of how other countries also imposed controls.

"There need to be laws to regulate cyberspace. Everyone does it. Look at the French, they arrested this man and threatened him with 20 years in prison for breaching their laws," Khamenei said during a meeting with relatively moderate President Masoud Pezeshkian and his cabinet.

The Islamic Republic has some of the strictest internet controls in the world but its blocks on U.S.-based social media such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube are routinely bypassed by tech-savvy Iranians using virtual private networks (VPNs).

Russian-born Durov, also a citizen of France and the United Arab Emirates, was arrested in Paris as part of an investigation into crimes related to sexual abuse of children, drug trafficking and fraudulent transactions on the platform, French prosecutors said on Monday.

His platform is blocked in the Islamic Republic.

Iran regularly charges internet users based on posts they shared online.

"Some do not understand or do not want to understand, but I have already said before that virtual space needs to be regulated in order to be turned into an opportunity and not a threat," Khamenei added.

During presidential debates, Pezeshkian criticised internet filtering, notably for its impact on the country's economy as many small businesses depend on social media.

Iran ranked third globally in the number of times it shut down the internet in 2023, according to the digital rights group Access Now.

This included shutting down mobile networks, both nationally and in targeted areas, while also blocking access to Instagram and WhatsApp, the only two major platforms not already subject to outright bans, Access Now said.