The Iran Regime Fears Telegram
- Saturday, 14 January 2017 14:23
NCRI - Having been scared of the social network channels, the Iranian regime requested the channels to cooperate and work as a spy for the government.
One of the Telegram channels has been very well welcomed in Iran and according to the figures; there are currently 40 million smartphones used to access Telegram.
According to the figures presented by the Iranian regime, the total amount of assigned lines (mobile phones) reached to 150 million and 230 thousand users by the end of September 2016; i.e. nearly twice the entire population of the country. This figure is among the highest in the world because the society has the quench to obtain up to date and reliable information.
The Minister of Interior, Abdolreza Rahmani Fazli admitted that IRIB has also lost its influence in the society. ISNA news agency reported that there are nearly 170 thousand active Persian channels in Telegram and about 11 thousand channels have more than 5000 members. According to the figures, 20 million out of 100 million users of Telegram Messenger are Iranians.
As the Telegram Messenger has been greatly welcomed by the Iranians and youngsters, the Iranian regime is gripped by fear to filter the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK) and the Iranian Resistance websites. Regarding this matter, one of the authorities of the regime confessed that:"Telegram does not cooperate with the Iranian regime. The filtering policy has also become a joke and in the upcoming presidential election we might encounter the highest electoral frauds."
The Secretary of the committee that determines the extensive criminal content tabs, Abdolsamad Khoram Abadi said:" Among the elections held last year in Iran, we had the most electoral fraud in elections of the Parliament and the Assembly of Experts. The foreign social media managers refused to tell us about the contents that had been released on the Internet against the candidates or their IP-Addresses. Consequently, we could not deal with them."(IRIB 2, January 1st 2017)
The CEO of Telegram Messenger, Paul Dorf stated that he has declined the request of cooperation with the Iranian regime to spy on the Iranian citizens.
Nevertheless, why does the regime make this much effort to filter Telegram and what is the main problem?
As a matter of fact, the Iranian regime has tactfully demanded Telegram Company to filter PMOI (MEK) and the Iranian Resistance websites. The Iranian regime is actually scared of the Mujahedeen since it perpetrated the massacre of 30 thousand of those so that they would not have any connection with people but the current cyberspace has destroyed the plans of the regime.
Shohadaye Iran, a state-run website, reported that recently an outfit of the Iranian regime vigorously urged Telegram to filter the channels that are sympathetic to the Iranian Resistance. But it was rebuffed by the cloud-based instant messaging service.
Telegram has responded that based on the principle of freedom of speech it would not pay heed to this request and would not shut down or filter these channels, the state-run website reported on December 31.
Telegram is very popular in Iran and is widely used by the Iranian youths who try to evade the clerical regime’s censorship on the internet. According to some news reports, currently Telegram is the main messaging app and most popular social media platform for Iranians.
Shahin Gobadi, a PMOI spokesman, said: “The clerical regime’s attempt to urge even foreign companies to filter the channels sympathetic to the Iranian Resistance clearly manifests the regime’s fear and anxiety regarding the growing popularity of the Iranian Resistance at home, in particular among the young Iranians. It is also an acknowledgement by the regime that despite all the suppression and censorship, Iranians are eager to connect to the MEK and obtain the Resistance’s news and information.”
“This is in line with repeated warnings in recent months by the regime’s senior officials about the growing popularity and activities of the MEK among the Iranian youths, particularly in universities,” Gobadi added.
The Iranian regime is also fearful of social protests, strikes, and rallies. The people can actually be connected to each other through these instant messaging networks such as Telegram and they can stage rally and protest in front of the Parliament of Iran and Evin Prison.
Following the uprising of 2009, the Iranian regime immediately established a committee to determine the extensive criminal content tabs. However, the government officials, including the Secretary of the committee, Abdolsamad Khoram Abadi in an interview on January 2nd 2017 had to admit the defeat.
