“Dear friends in America, do you believe miracles?! Well one has just apparently happened in Iran and the government in Tehran has lifted its filtering on Facebook!!!”

This was what Facebook user Mehdi posted on his page as for the first time in four years, Iranians were able to freely access their Twitter and Facebook accounts Monday without having to resort to using illegal software.

However, that freedom was short-lived.

Technical Glitch

Internet users in Iran were very much surprised when on Monday; they were able to access social networking sites Twitter and Facebook freely without having to get around the filtering mechanism employed by the country’s government.

It can be remembered that the ban for the said social networks were put in place after the 2009 elections in the country when fears of organized opposition movements online rose. Iranian FB and Twitter users have to make use of various illegal software to thwart the filtering system put up by the Iranian government.

Much to Iranian citizens’ surprise and delight, however, was when on Monday; they were able to log in to their social media accounts without difficulties. Like Mehdi, many have voiced their delight online. Some have referred to the appointment of moderate president Hassan Rouhani as the reason behind the ban’s lift. Rouhani had promised to bring about more freedom during his campaign.

“Twitter and Facebook has been freed! Rowhani thank you!” a Twitter user by the name of Ali said regarding the Monday incident.

But, according to Iran’s state media, the government had the occurrence investigated inferring that the event wasn’t called out for but rather, an unexpected one.

And by Tuesday, the bans are once again in place to the dismay of many.

“It was apparently due to a technical glitch and the committee is investigating it,” stated Abdolsamad Khoramabadi, the secretary of the official group which is given the responsibility of detecting internet use appraised as illegal, said in an interview with the Mehr news agency.

He then added he was not sure where the problem came from but if negligence is proved once the investigation is done, it will not go unpunished.

Dismay

As access to the said social sites was once again blocked come Tuesday, Iranians were not able to do anything but vent their dismay online.

“What a joy was last night, logging onto Twitter without the VPN … #sigh.” Twitter user Sima sadly declared.

Shockingly, Monday’s incident happened just days after Mohammad Javad Zarif, Iran’s foreign minister, had his Twitter account officially verified by the social networking site; something that’s technically wrong for him to do in his own country.

Aside from social media networks, Iranian government uses its state internet filtering system to systematically block YouTube as well as a countless varieties of other internet pages, blogs, and even pornographic sites trying to stop the country’s population from indulging themselves in internet content seen as immoral or threatening to the government.