Rouhani: The Filtering of Telegram Was Not Implemented by the Government and Is Not Approved by the Government

Hassan Rouhani, the President of Iran, emphasized on Friday, May 14, that his government played no role in blocking the Telegram messaging app and did not implement it. In a post on his Instagram, Rouhani wrote: "The policy of the eleventh and twelfth governments is based on creating a secure virtual space, not a security one. No social network or messaging app has been blocked by this government and will not be. The recent filtering and blocking of Telegram was neither implemented by the government nor approved by it." The Tehran Prosecutor's Office issued an order to block the Telegram messaging app on Tuesday afternoon, demanding that "the blocking should be executed in such a way that the content of the mentioned network is not accessible in the country by any software (including VPNs and similar tools)." This action by the Iranian judiciary has drawn criticism from Rouhani's government. This is Rouhani's first official reaction to this judicial ruling regarding the blocking of Telegram. The Iranian president stated on Instagram: "A judicial order was issued on May 10 for the blocking of the mentioned messaging app and was communicated to all mobile operators and internet service providers to take action to disrupt communication. A similar action was taken last year during the presidential election to enable voice calls on Telegram." He described the execution of administrative affairs using coercive and judicial tools as contradictory to the slogan "Independence, Freedom, Islamic Republic" and in opposition to democracy. Rouhani emphasized: "If a decision has been made at the highest level of the system to restrict or block people's communications, the real owners of this country, the people, must be informed about the matters." In Esfand 96, some Telegram channels reported that in one of the meetings of the Supreme Council of Cyberspace attended by the Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei had "strongly" criticized the lifting of the Telegram ban. However, Rouhani and Minister of Communications Mohammad Javad Azari Jahromi stated that there were no plans to block this messaging app. In December of last year, during the early days of nationwide protests in Iran, Telegram and Instagram networks were blocked, and security forces arrested several individuals involved in social networks. However, after the unrest ended, these two networks were unblocked. Telegram is one of the most popular social networks in Iran, with over 40 million Iranian users.