The Ups and Downs of a Phenomenon Called Telegram in Iran

It may not be possible to pinpoint an exact time for the widespread popularity of the Telegram messaging app among Iranian users. However, Telegram has so far had the fortune of not being filtered by the Iranian government, and this may have contributed to its prevalence. Now, however, the troubles and controversies surrounding Telegram in Iran have become so extensive that one of the top-ranking students in the 1995 university entrance exam mentioned "computers and Telegram" as issues that distract students from success in an interview with Tasnim. The Iranian government has not been indifferent to Telegram either. Recently, news emerged that the Cyber Police arrested four individuals for what they described as "insulting Islamic sanctities" on their Telegram channels. Previously, another individual was arrested and tried for sharing photos and clips in Telegram channels and groups. I asked Amin Sabati, a digital security expert, whether the Cyber Police uses technical and smart cyber methods to arrest these individuals or traditional police methods. He believes: "In the recent arrests of Telegram channel operators in Iran, more police methods are used than technical ones. For example, in the case of popular channels, what happens is that some of these channels accept advertisements. Therefore, the police can easily anonymously offer them an advertisement and gain access to individuals' accounts by obtaining their account numbers for payment. Overall, the arrest method is very simple and straightforward, but for propaganda and to scare other users, they claim that a very complex operation was carried out, which is not true." The phenomenon of channels and the beginning of an exciting story When Telegram allowed users to create channels in one of its updates, no one perhaps knew exactly how Iranian users would react to this phenomenon. However, it wasn't long before numerous Iranian channels began to operate. Many well-known and popular Iranian figures started personal channels, and many commercial channels also emerged. Currently, there are popular channels in Iranian Telegram that promote businesses for hundreds of thousands of tomans or even introduce your channel to their followers. Now you can find cheap flight tickets in a specific channel, download various books, or even listen to music from Telegram channels by connecting your phone to your car's Bluetooth. Recently, the Iran newspaper reported that "Telegram begging" has also emerged, where opportunistic individuals encourage people to help sick children by sharing their images in some Telegram channels. The help, of course, if realized, will be deposited into these individuals' personal accounts and will never reach the sick and needy children. Security and Telegram In Iran, security issues on the internet are always a double-edged sword. Internet users must be concerned about hackers and opportunists on one hand, and on the other, the constant interventions of the Cyber Police. Amin Sabati, however, believes that the management team's performance at Telegram has complicated the situation: "Regarding Telegram, when the founder tweeted that the Iranian government requested them to install spying tools on their servers for Iranian users, he said they rejected this request. But after a week or two, he announced that they had made a mistake and that Iran had not made such a request. At that time, many, including myself, were suspicious about how these contradictions occurred. Perhaps the most important issue that has recently raised discussions about Telegram's security is this lack of transparency in the actions of Telegram's managers. The Iranian government, in fact, does not mind this lack of transparency and occasionally makes statements about Telegram." The mystery of smart filtering Iranian officials have repeatedly announced that they are seriously pursuing the smart filtering project for internet content. Mahmoud Vaezi, the Minister of Communications, described this project as a three-phase project, with the first phase recently implemented on Instagram, claiming an 83% success rate. However, Amin Sabati considers smart filtering to be more of a joke: "Smart filtering is a joke and should not be taken seriously. I have 100% reliable information that the Rouhani government raised smart filtering to quiet the noise of conservatives and hardliners and to entertain them, this issue was brought up. The reason smart filtering is not practical is that large websites and messaging apps have moved towards encrypting their information. Websites like Google, Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram are such that no government, whether the US or Iran, can monitor you; they can only know that you entered facebook.com, but they cannot determine which Facebook page you visited and what you did. The same applies to Telegram, which also lacks the capability for smart filtering, meaning the Iranian government cannot block the Radio Farda Telegram channel." The mystery of transferring Telegram servers to Iran Given the challenges of smart filtering, another method that has apparently been introduced by Iranian officials for state control over Telegram is transferring the servers of this messaging app to the country. In this regard, Abolhassan Firouzabadi, Secretary of the Supreme Council of Cyberspace, stated on August 7 that "some messaging apps have expressed readiness to transfer their servers to Iran, including Telegram, as well as some countries like Russia and Korea." This statement comes while the Iranian Minister of Communications, as the main authority for internet infrastructure, has expressed ignorance about such a plan, and IT experts have always viewed this issue with skepticism. Amin Sabati told Radio Farda: "I personally doubt this will happen because the necessary infrastructure to store all the information on Telegram's servers does not exist in Iran. From a business perspective, Telegram would never do this because it is their brand, and Telegram is not only popular in Iran but also throughout the Middle East. Additionally, due to the issues related to sanctions, this would incur significant costs for the founders of Telegram. Therefore, I believe these statements are not serious, but unfortunately, the media takes these issues seriously. I think the government makes these statements to resist the wave of conservative demands in Iran to filter Telegram." Fears and hopes amid channel surfing Iranian mobile users do not have pleasant memories of the occasional shutdowns of messaging services. When, on the morning of the 2009 presidential election, most of these users realized that their mobile SMS service was not working, many understood that the Iranian government could do whatever it wanted with their mobile phones. However, now smartphone owners conduct most of their communications through messaging apps like Telegram. Messaging apps that have no government control over them, and this fact keeps the concern about their filtering alive. Amin Sabati, while considering smart filtering technically impossible, mentions that filtering Telegram itself is feasible. At the same time, he believes that politically and socially, filtering Telegram is not easy for the Iranian government: "I think as long as Rouhani's government is in power, it is unlikely that Telegram will be filtered. Because it has a high political cost for the government. They know that tools like Telegram have influenced elections; I am not saying significantly, but they have certainly had an impact. Therefore, if such a popular tool with about 20 million users is blocked, the political cost will be very high, and many people will not vote for them in the next election with the thought that this government could not even maintain this. Another reason is that extremist sites like Fars News and others currently have channels on Telegram, and they have, in a way, insured Telegram. Also, due to the expansion and advancement of mobile internet, the groups using tools like Telegram channels are now much broader than the social media users of 2009. However, in general, if Telegram is filtered in Iran, users will find another place and continue their activities there. Amin Sabati also believes that using Telegram channels for internet users who want to follow news and information is safer than spaces like Facebook: "In the case of channels on Telegram, because users do not share their information, there is not much danger threatening anyone. For example, on Facebook, where people leave comments and their ID and profile are visible, there is a greater risk than Telegram channels. Nevertheless, in general, users are advised to activate two-step verification on all their pages and messaging apps. 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