Judicial Order Issued for Telegram Filtering in Iran; Reactions in Cyberspace
After weeks of discussion and speculation about filtering Telegram in Iran, the country’s prosecutor’s office finally released an order to block this messaging app.
According to the text of the prosecutor’s statement published in Iranian news agencies, the order to block Telegram was issued on Monday, April 30, by the prosecutor of the second branch of the Culture and Media Court.
The prosecutor’s office announced that the judicial order for filtering Telegram was issued due to “illegal activities” through it and “multiple complaints against the Telegram social network.”
This order faced reactions in cyberspace. Firouz Naderi, Iranian NASA scientist, wrote: People will express their voice and opinion in stadiums, streets, and hundreds of cities and villages. You cannot silence the voice of an entire nation.
You can filter Telegram but what are you going to do with 40 million Iranians who were on it? People will voice their opinions in the streets, in the stadiums, and in 100’s of cities and villages around the country. you CANNOT shut off an entire nation. pic.twitter.com/ziAaywVd5x
— Firouz M. Naderi (@Firouz_Naderi) April 30, 2018
#Iran judiciary orders the blocking of @telegram. When a country is scare of a phone app!
https://t.co/L5c38FHjQy— Farnaz Fassihi (@farnazfassihi) April 30, 2018
#Iran judiciary orders the blocking of @telegram. When a country is scare of a phone app!
https://t.co/L5c38FHjQy— Farnaz Fassihi (@farnazfassihi) April 30, 2018
ممکنه در ساعات آینده افراد سودجو شروع کنند به پخش کردن نسخههایی از #تلگرام به اسم اینکه این فقط این نسخه از فیلتر رد میشود یا ویپیان به همین شکل. هشدار جدی میدهم این نسخهها را استفاده نکنید و اگر چیز مشکوکی گرفتید برای آدرس
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بفرستید تا بررسی شود#ریتوییت— AmiR (@Ammir) April 30, 2018
The order to filter Telegram was issued by the prosecutor of the Culture and Media Court while, in principle, since 2009, responsibility for filtering and blocking websites has been entrusted to the “Task Force for Determining Examples of Criminal Content.”
This task force has 13 members and operates under the supervision of the Prosecutor General. The chairman or representative of the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting Organization, the commander of law enforcement, two experts approved by parliament, the head of the Islamic Propaganda Organization, a representative of the secretariat of the Supreme Council of the Cultural Revolution, and the ministers of intelligence, culture and Islamic guidance, justice, communications and information technology, science, research and technology, and education are members of this task force.
Pressure to filter Telegram increased after many images of December protests and other demonstrations in Iran were distributed through this messaging app, and calls to participate in street protests were also shared using this messenger.
After the request of Iranian judicial officials to Telegram for information about some users was met with a negative response, pressure to filter this messaging app from the judicial apparatus and some conservative figures, including Friday prayer leaders, increased.
Over the past weeks, several domestic messaging apps, including “Soroush,” have been introduced to citizens by government agencies as alternatives to Telegram, but citizens, due to concerns about the government violating their privacy, have not shown much enthusiasm for domestic messengers.
The Telegram filtering order was raised while human rights organizations and some countries have condemned the actions of the Islamic Republic for imposing extensive filtering in cyberspace, considering it as closing the free flow of information.
Last December, Steve Goldstein, U.S. Deputy Secretary of State, urged the Islamic Republic to refrain from filtering social networks and allow the free dissemination of information. The U.S. State Department also criticized filtering and blocking the internet in Iran in its latest annual human rights report.
Source: Voice of America
