June 22, 2005
Iran sees red over election text messaging craze
As reported yesterday, the use of text messaging by Iranians to send acerbic comments on their presidential election choice has worried the authorities, who are threatening to prosecute mobile-addicts who insult the candidates
Today Iran News reports that the State television on Tuesday was regularly broadcasting a statement telling viewers that to send messages promoting the cause of a certain candidate was an offence.
There has even been "pressure to cut off" the entire SMS service, the official IRNA news agency cited a source within the state telecoms company as saying.
Some users in Tehran found they were unable to send messages on Tuesday morning.
While there are only six million mobile phones in Iran for a population of around 67 million people, text messaging can still have an influence on the campaign".
Using text messaging "could have an effect on turnout in the vote, even if it is difficult to measure," said new media expert Zhayla Bani Yaghoub.
Related articles:
-- Iranian judiciary threatens SMS campaigners
-- Residents of Teheran send text message against Ahmadinejad
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