Member of Parliament: Telegram Likely to Be Closed in Early May

Continuing the debate over the operation of foreign messaging apps in Iran, a member of parliament announced on Tuesday, April 17, that Telegram might be closed in early next month. Abolfazl Abutalebi, a member of the presidium of the Velayati faction in the Iranian parliament, stated in an interview with the Iranian Students' News Agency (ISNA) that the closure of Telegram in the country is just the beginning, and 'all foreign messaging apps' will gradually be shut down. Just a few days after the onset of nationwide protests in December, which erupted in dozens of cities across Iran, Telegram and Instagram were filtered in the country, and security forces arrested several individuals involved with social media. These two platforms were unblocked after a while, following the end of unrest in the country. However, on January 15, 170 members of the Islamic Consultative Assembly sent a letter to the leaders of the three branches of government, stating that recent gatherings had occurred 'on the platforms' of foreign messaging apps and called for the replacement of these apps with domestic alternatives and the regulation of VPNs. According to ISNA's report on this parliament member's statement, 'if foreign messaging apps such as Instagram and WhatsApp do not accept our country's laws, they will gradually be closed.' However, Abutalebi's statements are not very clear, as he only mentioned that 'according to hearsay' and 'probably' Telegram and other foreign messaging apps will be closed. In the past month or two, reports from Islamic Republic officials regarding messaging apps like Telegram and their closure have been increasingly contradictory and ambiguous. For instance, on April 1, shortly after the chairman of the National Security Commission of the Iranian parliament announced the permanent filtering of the Telegram app 'by the end of this month,' another representative stated that the timing of this event 'is not specified.' This statement by Aladdin Boroujerdi received widespread reactions from political figures, including two members of the National Security Commission, as well as a large number of internet users, indicating that even among officials and authorities, there is no consensus on this issue. In this context, the public relations office of the Iranian Cyber Space Center also issued a brief statement on Tuesday, ambiguously stating that no decision has yet been made regarding the blocking of Telegram, contrary to all reports and interviews from members of this center. Just two lines above in the same statement, according to the Tasnim news agency, it is stated: 'At any moment, if conditions arise, this blockage in Telegram may occur.' Nonetheless, in the past month, reports have emerged indicating that the Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic does not oppose the filtering of foreign messaging apps. For instance, in March 2018, some Telegram channels reported that in a meeting of the Supreme Council of Cyberspace attended by the Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Khamenei, he 'strongly' criticized the unblocking of Telegram. Reports about the potential filtering of Telegram in 2018 come at a time when this messaging app is one of the most popular social networks in Iran, with over 40 million Iranian users. As Abbas Salehi, the Minister of Culture and Islamic Guidance, previously stated, 80% of information production in the Persian-speaking cyberspace occurs on this platform and through 11,000 Telegram channels.