Iran prosecutor denies summoning Facebook founder
The news, now denied, that Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg was summoned by an Iranian court in response to privacy complaints originated from a Basij official and an Iranian court.
An Iranian prosecutor has denied news that Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg has been summoned by an Iranian court in response to breach-of-privacy complaints.
Shiraz Chief Prosecutor Ali Alghasi Mehr told the Islamic Republic News Agency that the story of Zuckberg’s summoning, which made international news, is not true. However, he added that there are “private complaints” of privacy issues with respect to pictures and videos shared on Facebook and its other social media platforms Instagram and WhatsApp.
The story appears to have started when the Iranian Students’ News Agency (ISNA) reported the summoning yesterday, May 27. Ruhollah Momen-Nasab, an information technology official with the paramilitary Basij force, told ISNA that after individual complaints of privacy breaches on WhatsApp and Instagram, “the CEO of the Zionist company or his lawyer” has been ordered to respond to a court in Fars province and to pay “compensation.”
Momen-Nasab did not name the judge who ordered the summons. The story has since been deleted.
