Baku, Azerbaijan, Mar. 16
By Khalid Kazimov - Trend:
Head of the Prevention Office of Iran's Welfare Organization Majid Rezazadeh has said that the office is developing a social application aimed at replacing Viber.
He hopes that the application will be launched in the second half of the next Iranian year (starting March 21).
He went on to add that an attempt is being made to prepare the web-based Android, and IOS versions of the application, Iran's ISNA news agency reported March 16.
Rezazadeh said that a demo version of the app is ready, adding that the most important point in developing the program is its security.
He said that current apps such as Viber and Whatsapp are not secure because their servers are not located in Iran.
The official pointed out that the money that has gone into the application's security is multiple times that spent on developing the rest of the program.
He said that the application, called Pars App, will provide options such as the ability to send long text messages, delete messages after they are sent, for admins to remove members from groups, etc.
It should be noted that several of world's most popular networks, such as Twitter and Facebook are banned in Iran, while users are still able to access them via proxies. A proxy allows bypassing 'gates' meant to block certain sites.
A survey by Iranian Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports indicates that 69.3 percent of the country's young generation use proxy servers to by-pass the filters and access banned Internet websites.
Edited by CN