Iraq blocks access to social media such as Facebook and Twitter

The Iraqi government is reportedly blocking citizens from accessing social media, including Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. This was reported by the Kuwaiti news agency KUNA on Friday, citing one source from the Iraqi Ministry of Communications.

Speaking to the news agency, the source does not let go of why the Iraqi government is blocking the sites. KUNA suggests that the blockade in Iraq may have something to do with ISIL, the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant. Militant fighters from that group are said to use social media to promote their actions in the country. In addition to social media, Iraq is also said to have banned access to some pornographic websites, but it is not clear why.

It is more common for governments to deprive citizens of direct access to social media in order to prevent unwanted messages from appearing on the sites. Recently, for example, Turkey was at odds with Twitter over the blocking of unwanted tweets. Twitter refused to cooperate, after which Turkey decided to completely deny users access to the service. Turkey and Twitter later agreed that unwanted messages will be ‘blocked’ with pixelation.