Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif invited Iranians in a post on his Instagram to watch a TED talk he gave at an independently organized TEDx event earlier this month on Youtube. Both Instagram and Youtube are banned in the Islamic Republic. View this post on Instagram سلام از پکن پس از چند ماه، تد (TED ) فیلم صحبت های بنده در دانشگاه امیرکبیر را منتشر کرد دوستانی که مایلند می توانند در ادرس زیر فیلم را ببینند https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DurdnA0TZhQ A post shared by Javad Zarif (@jzarif_ir) on Aug 26, 2019 at 1:41pm PDT In his TED talk at the TEDx event at the Amirkabir University in Tehran, Zarif discussed 'four big mistakes we make in our communications, from small day-to-day talks to negotiation on big global issues,' according to the description on the Youtube video of the talk. YouTube is officially banned within Iran and only well connected companies are allowed to benefit from the video streaming service. In May, Iran announced that the national information network (ININ), a intranet system that the country is working on, was 80% complete, according to Radio Farda. IRNA, a state news agency, said that the intranet would offer 'high quality, high speed' connections at 'low costs.' The intranet is intended to promote Islamic content and raise digital awareness among the public, according to the BBC. Iran already has blocked access to tens of thousands of sites and services including Twitter and Facebook, although many users use virtual private networks (VPNs) and proxy sites to bypass the filter.
Iranian Foreign Minister Zarif attends a news conference in Moscow(photo credit: REUTERS/SERGEI KARPUKHIN)