Iran: 180 Thousand 'Telegram Channels' Monitored and Many Admins Got Arrested by IRGC
- Thursday, 09 February 2017 02:19
NCRI - As ISNA News reported, Seyed Mahmoud Alavi on Sunday February 5th 2017 stated that the administrators of some Telegram channels have been arrested and some other channels have been blocked in cooperation with the Central Management Office of Telegram in Germany.
The Iranian Minister of Intelligence claimed that some social networkers have been repressed and arrested. He expressed his fear about the social network and stated:"we do not bother people unless they intend to harm the regime."
The Deputy of the Attorney-General of Iran, Abdolsamad Khoramabadi said that a campaign has started in cyberspace and about 18 thousand people monitor cyberspace on voluntary basis.
He further added: any violation by websites and social networking will be reported to the General-Attorney Office as the main sources for the committee that determines the extensive criminal content tabs, to prosecute the violating websites (Mizan News Agency, February 8th 2017).
In August 2016, the state run Mashregh News reported that 450 administrators of social media pages, channels or groups were summoned or arrested by the Organized Crime Center affiliated with the Iranian Revolutionary Guards (IRGC).
These confessions, of course, reflect the influence of social media on the one side and on the other hand the fear of the Iranian regime for the media and networks. They claim that social network operates in order to harm the regime.
The representative of Isfahan in the Iranian Parliament, Ahmad Salek also fabricated charges against the social networkers and stated that the social media channels use enemy's tools to fight in the soft war against the Iranian regime (ISNA News, February 2nd 2017).
The cleric Masoud Mali contended that mobile and the internet are the serious threats to the regime and the media channels influence on people as well. As he claims, 90 percent of youth are now connected to the cyberspace and this issue could make serious threats provided that it won't be controlled ( IRIB 3 , January 30th 2017).
The Cultural Advisor of the Commander of IRGC, Hamidreza Moghaddamfar also said that most of social networks are targeted to be blocked. Satellite channels control the nations and states (IRNA News, August 3rd 2016).
The main issue is to eliminate social media channels and such reasons as the spread of foreign culture, anti-religious and immoral thoughts are only pretexts to censor and filter the internet and ultimately to create the atmosphere of repression and intimidation in the society.
The main fear is that another uprising might break out as it also happened in 2009.
In order to stop the influence of the media and their role in organizing plots against the regime such as the uprising of 2009, the Iranian regime established a filtering organization entitled "the committee that determines the extensive criminal content tabs". However, the regime ended in failure in filtering and censorship as well as repressions after 7 years.
