Iran: Regime Bans Popular Messaging Application
NCRI – The Iranian regime’s judiciary has announced that the use of popular messaging application Telegramis now banned in the country. According to a court order, the Iranian internet providers are obliged to ensure that Telegram cannot be accessed. It said: “All Internet providers in Iran must take steps to block Telegram’s website and app as of April 30.”
Not long ago, regime’s Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei, declared that the regime entities in the country would no longer be using Telegram.
The Iranian regime has been trying to encourage the people to use domestic alternatives to Telegram. One such alternative that has been presented to the people is called “Soroush”. However, this application has been the subject of much controversy because of several of its features.
Soroush has many of the same features as the Telegram application, but it has controversial emojis such as a number of women in traditional chador, a person holding a framed picture of Khamenei and another with a person holding a “Death to America” placard.
The people of Iran are also highly reluctant to use any domestic alternative because of the Iranian regime’s determination to control and spy on them.
At the end of last year, protests broke out all across the country. They started out as protests against the economic situation and the government corruption, but they quickly turned into anti-government demonstrations and calls for regime change.
The regime knew that it was hanging on by a thread, so faced with the increasing resistance and dissent, it made the decision to temporarily ban Telegram. The application was used to organise protests and to share details about current and upcoming events. The government said at the time that it was necessary to take such action in an attempt to calm the situation.
Furthermore, Mohammad-Javad Azari Jahromi, the regime’s ICT minister said that Telegram was complicit in the protests because it was “encouraging hateful conduct, use of Molotov cocktails, armed uprisings, and social unrest”.
The people of Iran are clearly very discontent with the way the country is being run, or rather mismanaged. For decades they have been subject to censorship, repression, oppression and suppression, but they refuse to be beaten and will not back down.
Telegram is seen by the Iranian regime as a major threat. It is used as a way for the people to communicate, share videos, share information, etc. and the regime cannot control it. Domestic applications, on the other hand, would enable the regime to keep tabs on the people.
The brave people of Iran will not let the regime exert even more control over them. Almost every aspect of life in Iran is dictated by the regime from how they dress to what they worship to who they socialise with and how. The people routinely risk imprisonment, arrest, torture and even execution to show the regime that they will be defiant.
Last month, officials in Iran said that the threat of cybercurrency coming into use was another reason for banning Telegram.