An apparent IT glitch saw an unexpected showing of Facebook and Twitter to ecstatic social media starved Iranians this week; the reprieve was short lived. All social media has been banned in Iran since the protests in 2009 when Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was re-elected.

According to the New York Times, Iranian officials said that a technical glitch resulted in the temporary unblocking of the sites, which the government had walled off from Iranian users in 2009, saying they were being used by antigovernment protesters to organize demonstrations. To reach the sites, many Iranians began using virtual private network, or VPN, software to connect through computers located outside the country, though the telecommunications ministry eventually deployed technology to block much of that kind of traffic as well.


Photo from NCR-Iran

The country’s new president, Hassan Rouhani, has promised several times to reduce Internet censorship, and several of his cabinet ministers, including the foreign minister, Mohammad Javad Zarif, have set up Facebook pages and opened Twitter accounts, some of them quite active.

Insiders say the glitch could have been caused by infighting between groups seeking to reopen the Web sites, who are struggling with hard-liners who continue to control the hardware to block Web sites. By Tuesday, Iranian officials had restored the blocks.

Iranian Internet users reacted to the apparent unblocking on Monday as if a digital Berlin Wall had just crumbled on their computer screens.

“Hurray, I came to Facebook without using VPN,” a user called Bita posted on her wall. “Thank you Rouhani!!!”

Several hard-line politicians have made public comments in recent days calling Facebook “a Zionist tool,” but the fact that it was accessible in Iran on Monday suggested that the censorship council, which Mr. Rouhani heads, might have decided otherwise.

Still, the government has sometimes let the firewall blocking Facebook and Twitter slip open briefly by mistake, and some Iranians cautioned that the opening on Monday, too, might be just a glitch.

NCR-Iran notes that it emerged in February of last year that despite the ban, Iranian regime's Supreme Leader Khamenei had his own Facebook page, which appears to be very active and genuine.

Cake anyone?