When Iran's authorities started to block websites such as YouTube and Wikipedia in 2006, only a tenth of the population used the internet. Eight years later that figure has quadrupled. But to the religious conservatives who dominate the country's courts the rise is nothing to cele-brate-or even tolerate. Already upset by the recent rejection of their plans to restrict access to WhatsApp and Instagram, hugely popular social-messaging and picture-sharing smartphone applications, Iran's legal establishment is stiffening its neck for a bigger confrontation, over curbing the giant filtering system that blocks access to thousands of websites. Once again, President Hassan Rohani's government is on the more liberal side of the argument.
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