Iranian Telecoms Ordered to Shut Down Access to Messaging App Telegram

Monday April 30, 2018 5:58 PM PDT by Juli Clover
A Tehran-based court today ordered Iranian telecommunications providers to block popular messaging app Telegram, reports The Wall Street Journal.

Iran has been concerned about Telegram's role in recent protests and unrest in the country, which has led to the ban.

The order said Telegram gave Islamic State "safe ground" in an attack in Tehran last year and also blamed its role in protests in December and January, the biggest in Iran in almost a decade. It ordered telecommunications providers to block the service.
As of now, the Telegram app continues to be available for use without the need for a VPN or another method of circumventing the ban, and it is not clear if and when it will be rendered unavailable in the country.

According to The Wall Street Journal, approximately 40 million Iranians use Telegram, accounting for one-fifth of Telegram's user base. Telegram is popular in the country as it offers end-to-end encrypted communication that's inaccessible to the government.

Iran's move to ban Telegram comes just a few weeks after a Russian court ordered Russian telecommunications providers to block Telegram in Russia after Telegram refused to comply with government demands for access to users' messages.

Due to U.S. sanctions, Apple does not sell its products in Iran nor is there an Iranian App Store, but there are millions of iPhones in the country that have been smuggled from places like Dubai and Hong Kong.

Apple in March blocked access to the App Store in Iran, preventing Iranians from accessing apps by setting their devices to other regions.

Note: Due to the political nature of the discussion regarding this topic, the discussion thread is located in our Politics, Religion, Social Issues forum. All forum members and site visitors are welcome to read and follow the thread, but posting is limited to forum members with at least 100 posts.

30 comments

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Onexy
23 months ago
How to make your citizens hate you. A guide for governments.
Rating: 9 Votes
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zorinlynx
23 months ago
So, two repressive governments are banning a messaging app. I can't think of a better endorsement of a messaging app, really. I already use Telegram, but the recent events are telling.
Rating: 5 Votes
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LIVEFRMNYC
23 months ago
Sucks for them. Telegram is a great messaging service/app. I use it more than Whatsapp nowadays. Mainly cause you can use it attached to your number on multiple devices.
Rating: 4 Votes
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497902
23 months ago

Is telegram really safe (Private)?


No, at least not by default. You have to use secret chats otherwise you won't get end to end encryption.

I'd recommend Signal as it's used by Edward Snowden and has end to end encryption by default.
Rating: 3 Votes
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Dilster3k
23 months ago
Actually all this news makes me want to use the service...
Rating: 3 Votes
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Packers1958
23 months ago
I'm sure somehow this will become the fault of the US. When you fear an app, blame the US for all your woes.
Rating: 3 Votes
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497902
23 months ago

Telegram is blocked, not because is wide used, but it dont give govs access to it.


It's blocked in some countries because they don't give them access to it AND because it is widely used.

It seems like you're implying that Signal does share your chats with government agencies when in fact they can't even see them if they wanted to. The only thing they save is your phone number, sign up date and the last time you've connected to the service which was proven by an incident in the past when the FBI required them to hand in all the data they had about a specific user and got this useless information as they already had his phone number to begin with.

On the other hand, while Telegram refuses to give in to government demands, we don't actually know what they save. If anything, governments can hack into Telegram's non secret chats and get the data that way without Telegram ever being involved.

Also, I'd argue that giving users the impression of false security might be exactly what certain people want. Are you one of them?

Snowden only leaked some papers. He doesnt know anyhing about what is good or not.


That doesn't even make any sense.
[doublepost=1525208465][/doublepost]

Has Snowden provided some particular reasoning why Signal is better (and perhaps some others like Telegram might not be)?

twitter.com/Snowden/status/947190333540061185
youtube.com/watch?v=lkrXcE8poR8
Rating: 2 Votes
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ksnell
23 months ago

And there is good reason for it not to be E2E encrypted by default.

https://telegram.org/faq#q-why-not-just-make-all-chats-secret


For cloud backups? This does not make it more secure. It is a compromise of security/privacy.
Rating: 1 Votes
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C DM
23 months ago

Yes and you have a real proof here.
Dictators are banning Telegram, not signal, not other app.
[doublepost=1525196812][/doublepost]
I am tired of this snowden and signal propganda stuff.
Who is snowden to endorse whatever? He knows nothing about the code of the apps...
If we really want a proof of which app we should use, WE have it here: look which app is being blocked by dictators... hint: it is not signal!!!

To be fair, it might have to do more with perhaps Telegram being the more popular and known app, and thus getting the attention, while some other apps like Signal are perhaps less popular and thus not as many people might be using them and banning them won't really accomplish that much. Basically that's to say that the whole banning thing might not really have as much to do with what's actually better or anything like that, but just with what's more widely used (for whatever reason).
Rating: 1 Votes
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beanbaguk
23 months ago

No, at least not by default. You have to use secret chats otherwise you won't get end to end encryption.

I'd recommend Signal as it's used by Edward Snowden and has end to end encryption by default.


Are you sure about that? According to their app statement...

Rating: 1 Votes
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