Ban on the Use of Foreign Messaging Apps in the Ministry of Education's Directive

The Minister of Education has joined the domestic messaging app Soroush and requested all administrative units of the ministry to use domestic messaging apps for administrative matters, with the Ministry of Education issuing a directive in this regard. Mohammad Bat'hai recently announced on his Twitter account that he has moved his information channel to a domestic messaging app and shared the address of this new channel created on Soroush. Simultaneously, a directive from the Ministry of Education has been published on news sites, prohibiting the use of foreign messaging apps for sharing information and notifications. This directive, signed by Shapur Mohammadzadeh, advisor to the minister and director general of the ministerial office, requests all departments, general offices, centers, and affiliated organizations of education to refrain from using messaging apps and networks such as Telegram, Instagram, WhatsApp, Line, Tango, etc. It has also been warned that using foreign networks for information sharing and notifications, whether for students or by secretariats and for advertising and calls, is not permitted and is subject to legal prosecution at any level. In addition to the administrative units of the Ministry of Education, all schools, including public and private, are also subject to this directive. This directive references several government directives and instructions issued in 2017, 2015, and 2014. This action comes after recent news about a decision to filter the popular messaging app Telegram in Iran by late April and to use domestic messaging apps instead. Aladdin Boroujerdi, head of the National Security and Foreign Policy Commission of the Islamic Consultative Assembly, recently stated that 'this decision has been made at the highest level, and Telegram will be replaced by a similar national system.' He also added that 'this issue is important for our national security, considering the destructive role Telegram played in last year's crises in the country and that we have now reached the capability in cyberspace to define a national system.' His reference is to the street protests in December 2017 in dozens of cities in Iran, which led to the temporary blocking of Telegram and Instagram in Iran. The decision by the Islamic Republic officials to block citizens' access to Telegram comes at a time when Hassan Rouhani, the President of Iran, has denied any 'monopoly' in this regard, and Mohammad Javad Azari Jahromi, the Minister of Communications in his government, has warned against the blocking of international services solely to encourage users to use domestic services. Azari Jahromi has stated that what is referred to in the Persian-speaking cyberspace as 'forced migration' to domestic messaging apps could become 'counterproductive.' Shahindokht Molaverdi, the assistant to the President for Citizen Rights, has also stated that 'in the government, we believe that the monopoly on the use of foreign messaging apps should be broken, but we must also recognize the right of citizens to choose from various domestic and foreign options.' While some political figures and experts in the field of cyberspace have warned the Islamic Republic officials that the people of Iran do not 'trust' domestic messaging apps, others call the use of domestic messaging apps a 'guarantee of national security.' Abolfazl Hassanbeigi, a member of the National Security and Foreign Policy Commission of the Islamic Consultative Assembly, has said that 'national security necessitates the use of domestic messaging apps.' Mr. Hassanbeigi has claimed that the Telegram messaging app is 'completely under the control of Saudi Arabia, which finances its costs and dictates its policies.' This member of parliament has also stated that the timing of the filtering of Telegram depends on when domestic messaging apps reach a stage capable of covering 50 million members and users. The popular Telegram messaging app in Iran has over 40 million users and is on the verge of being filtered while having also become a tool for buying, selling, and earning income. Recently, after concerns about insecurity and the possibility of eavesdropping on communications in domestic messaging apps, the leader of the Islamic Republic has recently declared that violations of individuals' privacy in these messaging apps are 'religiously forbidden' to attract public opinion towards using these apps. Both the office of the leader of the Islamic Republic and other governmental and semi-governmental institutions and media in Iran use Telegram channels for information dissemination, and in addition, they are active on some social networks like Twitter and Facebook, which ordinary Iranian users are deprived of access to due to filtering.