Shahrvand Newspaper: Smart Filtering of Telegram Has Begun in Iran

About a month after the deadline given to the Telegram messaging app by the Working Group for Determining Criminal Content to comply with Iranian laws, Shahrvand newspaper reported on the "smart filtering" of this messaging app and restrictions on sending certain messages through it. The newspaper wrote in its report on Tuesday, December 1, that Telegram users are facing restrictions when sending some messages that "seem to contain words or phrases subject to filtering" and that they cannot send messages containing these words to others or share them in groups. According to this report, after sending certain messages, Telegram users receive a notification stating that "due to internal restrictions" in their country, sending this message is not possible. In recent months, access to the Telegram social network on mobile phones in Iran has faced disruptions, and rumors of its blockage have also been raised, but Mahmoud Vaezi, the Minister of Communications and Information Technology, has repeatedly denied the "restriction or filtering" of this messaging app. Meanwhile, Davood Zareiyan, the public relations manager of the Iranian Telecommunications Company, on Wednesday, October 29, denied reports about the filtering of this messaging app, calling "smart filtering" the best way to counter what he referred to as "abuses" in cyberspace. According to reports on smart filtering, which has previously been implemented for Instagram in Iran, instead of completely filtering social networks, part of the content designated in this program will be made inaccessible. Some members of the Working Group for Determining Criminal Content, which is responsible for filtering websites in Iran, had previously announced that this group would decide on the filtering of Telegram. Ultimately, this group announced after its meeting on November 18 that if Telegram does not take necessary actions to comply with the laws and regulations of the country within a limited time, the Iranian Ministry of Communications and Information Technology will filter it. Iranian government officials and members of parliament have reported that the number of Telegram users ranges from 13 to 20 million. Meanwhile, according to Fars News Agency, Mohammad Ebrahim Tariqat, the spokesperson for the National Organization for Civil Registration, stated on Tuesday that Telegram has 14 million members in Iran, of which "82 percent of its users are under 18 years old." In this context, the IRGC has identified "300,000 Telegram users in Markazi province."