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Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Free Speech Warrior?
Reason ^ | October 9, 2018 | Matthew Petti

Posted on 10/10/2018 11:42:52 PM PDT by beaversmom

When Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was president of Iran, he banned Twitter. Now he is the platform's No. 1 fan. "Any type of restrictions on ideas and beliefs especially on #SocialMedia will lead to chaos and dictatorship. #FreedomOfSpeech," he tweeted in September.

Since leaving office in 2013, the infamously repressive Ahmadinejad has become a vocal critic of current President Hassan Rouhani. Like many politicians around the world, Ahmadinejad in opposition has become a proponent of freedoms he was unwilling to extend to his own critics while in office.

Ahmadinejad has developed a vocal presence on the internet since creating his Twitter in March 2017. In English, he's weighed in on everything from the gold standard (under the hashtag #DictatorshipOfDollar) to NFL player Colin Kaepernick's protest against police brutality, sparking a brief flame war with Ted Cruz. The tweets are meant to establish "a reputation as an anti-imperialist supporter of the 'oppressed' globally," says Sina Toossi, a researcher at the National Iranian-American Council..

But in Persian, Ahmadinejad has largely used the site to attack the current government.

"In the past year, Ahmadinejad's rhetoric and actions have become sharply more critical of the entire ruling system," Toossi says. "He has called for President Hassan Rouhani's resignation, voiced support for a referendum, and publicly released critical letters to [Iranian religious leader] Ayatollah Khamenei."

Ahmadinejad also promotes the idea that he and his associates are being persecuted by the deep state. When former Ahmadinejad chief of staff Esfandiar Rahim Mashaei and media adviser Ali-Akbar Javanfekr were convicted of "conspiracy against national security" in September, Ahmadinejad shared a video message from Mashaei accusing the intelligence services of plotting against him.

Ahmadinejad frequently complains online about the courts' treatment of Mashaei, Javanfekr, and former Vice President Hamid Baghaei, who was jailed in December 2017 for corruption. In a different September video partially translated into English by Toossi, he said that the head of military intelligence has "no balance, everyone knew this, all the country's officials know what he's done."

Toossi contrasts Ahmadinejad's "relative freedom" with the case of Reformist former president Mohammad Khatami, who is banned from speaking to the media. Mir-Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi, Ahmadinejad's main opponents in the 2009 elections, were also put under house arrest without trial in 2011.

Twitter itself was banned in Iran during Ahmadinejad's 2009 re-election campaign.

Many other Iranian officials have verified accounts on banned social media platforms. "Even hardliners who defend Twitter being blocked are on Twitter," says Reza Ghazinouri, co-director of United for Iran, a San Francisco based nonprofit that works towards advancing civil liberties in Iran through technology.

He estimates that "at least a million" Iranians are active on the social network, using tools such as virtual private networks and the TOR browser to circumvent the government's online filters.

Despite his own campaign promises to improve access to social media, President Rouhani's administration blocked Telegram, an encrypted messaging app popular with Iranians. "Rouhani did all he could to unblock Telegram," Ghazinouri claims, but Khamenei "intervened behind the scenes."

In the Islamic Republic of Iran, an elected government shares power with the clergy and the military. The Supreme Council of Cyberspace, which oversees electronic censorship, is drawn from both sides of government, although the religious Guardian Council approves all its members.

When they tried to run again in the 2017 presidential race, the same Guardian Council barred Ahmadinejad, Mashaei, and Baghaei from the ballot.

Ahmadinejad was first elected in 2005 on a platform of expanded welfare programs, conservative social policies, ambitious public works projects, and an aggressive foreign policy. According to Toossi, the Ahmadinejad campaign "promoted populist notions of him combating a criminal elite."

After the liberal Green Movement accused Ahmadinejad of rigging his 2009 re-election, he cracked down on protests with Khamenei's support. (According to an investigation by The Guardian, at least 80 people died and many were tortured in prison.) But Ahmadinejad also clashed with Khamenei over control of the intelligence ministry, and lost support from his fellow Conservatives by hiring Mashaei, who was perceived as a religious heretic.

The clergy also criticized Ahmadinejad for lax enforcement of Iran's religious dress codes in 2011.

Ahmadinejad's successor Hassan Rouhani was elected in 2013 and 2017 on a platform of liberalization, supported by a coalition of Reformists and moderate Conservatives. His landmark achievement is the 2015 nuclear deal, in which Iran scaled back its atomic research program in exchange for sanctions relief from six world powers.


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Foreign Affairs; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: iran

1 posted on 10/10/2018 11:42:52 PM PDT by beaversmom
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https://twitter.com/Ahmadinejad1956


2 posted on 10/10/2018 11:49:44 PM PDT by beaversmom
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To: beaversmom


ahaaaaa    yes.

iranian 'students' terrorize the US embassy, holding US hostages for 444 days until President Reagan scares crap out of them.

That Akma-the-nutjob.

a profile in free speach.      HA.


3 posted on 10/10/2018 11:54:46 PM PDT by 867V309 (Lock Her Up)
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Islam is a war plan.


4 posted on 10/11/2018 12:06:11 AM PDT by Gene Eric (Don't be a statist!)
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To: beaversmom

You can have free speech and Islam in the same room.


5 posted on 10/11/2018 12:44:35 AM PDT by Leep
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To: Leep
You can have free speech and Islam in the same room.

Until Islam cuts free speech's head off.

6 posted on 10/11/2018 1:09:03 AM PDT by Jeff Chandler (Every time a lefty cries "racism", a Trump voter gets his wings.)
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To: Jeff Chandler

That Islam guy is some kind of psycho a-hole.


7 posted on 10/11/2018 1:16:59 AM PDT by Leep
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To: beaversmom

Libertarian “Reason Magazine” (misnamed btw...) shilling for anti American Islam. Does Achmedinajad tweet death to American and nuke Israel, too?


8 posted on 10/11/2018 4:29:30 AM PDT by Stepan12 (It is Civll War right now..)
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To: beaversmom
Documenting antisemitism within the Libertarian movement
9 posted on 10/11/2018 4:45:36 AM PDT by Stepan12 (It is Civll War right now..)
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To: beaversmom
Libertarian party supports islamic terrorists
10 posted on 10/11/2018 4:49:36 AM PDT by Stepan12 (It is Civll War right now..)
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To: Stepan12

He needs to be positively ID’d by those 55 who were hostage. Can they remember how he looked 39 years ago? Then he should be taken into custody.


11 posted on 10/11/2018 6:23:05 AM PDT by DIRTYSECRET (urope. Why do they put up with this.)
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To: DIRTYSECRET
He needs to be positively ID’d by those 55 who were hostage. Can they remember how he looked 39 years ago? Then he should be taken into custody.

Good point.

12 posted on 10/11/2018 8:23:29 AM PDT by Stepan12 (It is Civll War right now..)
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