Iran's Minister of ICT, Mahmoud Vaezi on the right at the WSIS 2015 forum in Geneva, Switzerland. Image from remixed by Mahsa Alimardani.
This post was written by Small Media researcher Kyle Bowen, and first appeared on Medium.
Recent disruptions to the messaging app Telegram have caused a stir on social media. The country’s Twitter users took this as opportunity to voice more general complaints about Iran’s slow, expensive, and heavily filtered Internet, known among some Iranians as the ‘filternet’. Here are five of the best reactions from the past month:
Sarcastic Thanks
متشکریم از تمام دوستانی که کشور رو اداره می‌کنن، بابت این جهنمی که با سرعت اینترنت و فیلترینگ واسه ما تدارک دیدن. ادامه بدین کار خوبتون رو.
— تاتــولوژی و هرزگوین (@blackvvine) October 6, 2015
We thank those running the country for providing these hellish internet speeds and filtering stuff. Carry on, you’re doing great work!
Profanity
طرفدارای نظام اگه واقعا به این حکومت اعتقاد دارن گه میخورن فیلترشکن میگیرن سیستم فیلترینگ اینا رو دور میزنن میان اینجا— habib (@habib62) October 9, 2015
Regime supporters who’ve bypassed the filtering system to get onto Twitter are shit-eating hypocrites.
Iranian conservatives have always bent the rules to get onto ‘forbidden’ social networks. See our report ‘Unmasking the Arzeshi’ for more info.
403: Genitals Forbidden
وضعیت طوری شده که آدم توی شورتش رو نگاه می‌کنه، تعجب می‌کنه که صفحه فیلترینگ نمیاد
— مرتضا (@morteza__m) October 5, 2015
We’ve reached the point where I’m surprised I don’t see the filtering page when I look in my underwear.
“Argh!”
اینا چرا اینجوری می کنن؟ یهو اینترنت و قطع کنن بگن هرکس از اینترنت استفاده کنه مجرمه خلاص! #فیلترینگ_تلگرام
— لَمیک (@Dr_lamik) October 28, 2015
Why they do this? They cut the internet completely and say that anyone using the internet is a criminal—end of discussion! #telegramfiltering.
Over the last couple of months, Iranian authorities have been criticising Telegram loudly. Since late October, it’s been intermittently unavailable in Iran.
These Guys Suck at Censorship
اینستاگرام با هر بار آپدیت، آفتابه میگیره به کل سیستم فیلترینگ هوشمند 
— Armin (@arminophen) October 1, 2015
With a single Instagram update, the whole smart filtering system will be destroyed.
Iran’s “Intelligent Filtering” project is aimed at censoring ‘immoral’ content on platforms like Instagram. But as this user points out, technical changes on Instagram’s side could render Iran’s intelligent filtering efforts outdated and ineffective. Oops. That’s $66 million down the drain!
Read Full Story from Global Voices Advocacy https://advox.globalvoices.org/2015/11/20/five-top-tweets-iranians-ridicule-censorship-on-the-filternet/
This article by Small Media originally appeared on advocacy.globalvoicesonline.org on November 20, 2015 at 05:29PM
