Baku, Azerbaijan, April 30
By Umid Niayesh - Trend:
Iran's judiciary has issued an order to ban access to Telegram messaging app in the country.
According to an order by Tehran’s culture and media court, all Internet service providers in the country must fully block access to Telegram’s website and app from April 30, Iranian media outlets reported.
The court said that the decision was made after numerous complaints filed against the social network as well as requests by relevant Iranian authorities.
The judicial statements reads that the messaging app through foreign investment and without complying with the laws and regulations of the Islamic Republic of Iran, has acted illegally and inappropriately in the cyberspace of the country and has become a safe platform for activities of terrorist groups including the Islamic State (IS, ISIL).
According to the statement Telegram has became a platform for several crimes including "disrupting national unity” and creating disagreements among Iranians, specially through racial and ethnic issues and encouraging people for insurrection, gathering information of Iranians and the access of foreigners to the private data of Iranian citizens, espionage, distribution of pornographic content, etc.
Earlier in April 26, Iran banned Telegram from use of domestic content delivery networks (CDNs).
According to Mohammad-Javad Azari Jahromi, the telecommunications minister, Telegram app is used by an estimated 40 million users in the country, almost the half the population.
The Supreme Council of Cyberspace has earlier set five conditions for foreign messengers to operate in Iran.
Storing and processing Iranian users’ data inside the country, complying with the rules and regulations related to the protection of users' privacy as well as responding to queries from judicial authorities are among the stated conditions.