Iran Blocks Facebook As Presidential Election Nears

May 25, 2009 6:33 p.m. EST

Tehran, Iran (AHN) - The social networking site Facebook has been blocked by the government in advance of this country's presidential elections next month. The site was used by several candidates running against President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

A semi-official news agency, the Iranian Labor News Agency (ILNA), reported over the weekend that the Iranian government had blocked the site. Western media working here trying to access Facebook said they received a message that "Access to this site is not possible," according to CNN.

Ahmadinejad said Monday that he had not called for the ban on Facebook. "I should make an inquiry and ask about this," he told CNN. "I believe in maximum freedom of expression."

All of Ahmadinejad's three challengers in the June 12 election have sites on Facebook. Mir Hossein Mousavi, a reformist candidate, said he had more than 5,000 supporters on his Facebook site.

Saleh Behesti, who helped organize Mousavi's Internet campaign, said he had used Facebook to organize rally on Saturday that drew 20,000 supporters.

"Facebook is one of the only independent sources that the Iranian youth could use to communicate," an adviser to candidate Mahdi Karroubi, Mohammed Ali Abtahi, told Al Jazeera.

Facebook had been blocked in Iran until three months ago.

ILNA reported that the site was blocked for a few hours over the weekend, was reinstated, and then blocked again.

Decisions about Internet access are made by the Council for Determining Instances of Filtering, a group comprised of members of the government, judiciary and intelligence.