Arrest of 32 Managers and Members of Telegram Channels in Hormozgan

On Wednesday, January 18, the head of the judiciary in Hormozgan province announced the arrest of "32 managers and members of Telegram channels" in the province. According to ISNA news agency, Sadegh Akbari explained the reason for these arrests: "These individuals had attracted over three thousand people to immoral channels by inciting sexual deviations, promoting unethical themes, and creating fake profiles." This judicial official added that these individuals were pursued for publishing "obscene content" and were arrested through operations by the Cyber Information Center of the Law Enforcement Force in Hormozgan province. According to the head of the judiciary in Hormozgan, these individuals managed a total of 78 pages, channels, and social groups. The charges against them include "spreading falsehoods," "disturbing public order," "creating fear and terror among the public," "promoting anti-cultural themes," "confusing public opinion," "publishing immoral content," and "unauthorized and unconventional advertising in public places." The popularity and prevalence of social networks, especially Telegram, have increased pressure from governmental and conservative bodies to filter them; however, President Hassan Rouhani's government has opposed filtering Telegram channels. On the other hand, numerous arrests in the realm of cyberspace have also occurred in 1395 (2016). According to Hossein Sajedi-Nia, the head of Tehran's police, 1,200 individuals were arrested in this context in Tehran alone during the first eight months of 1395. "Distorting information, publishing obscene audio and videos, sharing private images and videos of individuals, spreading falsehoods, threats, extortion, and internet harassment, hacking computer systems, selling unauthorized goods, websites contrary to public decency, and unauthorized matchmaking, illegal withdrawals from individuals' financial accounts, fraud, and phishing" are among the charges for which these 1,200 individuals were arrested. However, imposing restrictions on social networks has turned into a conflict between the government and the judiciary and other governmental bodies. Ali Motahari, the deputy speaker of parliament, criticized the judiciary for bypassing the "Working Group for Determining the Instances of Criminal Content" and the "Press Supervisory Board" in filtering actions. He stated that if this approach by the judiciary continues, "the Working Group for Determining Instances of Criminal Content in Cyberspace and the Press Supervisory Board should be shut down, and in fact, the legislator has done a futile job by establishing these two bodies and should have given their powers to the judiciary." The Working Group for Determining Criminal Instances has 13 members, six of whom are appointed by the executive branch and two others by the parliament. The Attorney General (head of the group), the head of the state broadcasting organization, the police chief, the head of the Islamic Propagation Organization, and a representative from the Supreme Council of the Cultural Revolution (or their representatives) are other members of this group. In this group, filtering the Telegram messaging app has been put to a vote but did not achieve the necessary threshold. Nevertheless, according to a resolution by the "Supreme Council of Cyberspace," the government is required to register "channels and social networks with more than five thousand members." Mahmoud Vaezi, the Minister of Communications in the eleventh government, described this action as a step to prevent "rumors" and "irrelevant talk." In this context, the Cyber Police reported that 3,323 gambling channels have been identified on Telegram. Several popular Telegram channels have been "hacked and taken offline" after their managers were summoned. The head of the Cyber Police stated that the government opposes the filtering of Instagram. The Minister of Communications mentioned that there has been no resolution for transferring Telegram servers to Iran. The ups and downs of the phenomenon called Telegram in Iran continue.