Minister of Culture: 80% of Persian-language Online Content is Produced on Telegram

The Minister of Culture and Islamic Guidance has stated that 80% of information production in the Persian-language online space occurs through 11,000 Telegram channels. According to ISNA, Reza Salehi Amiri announced this statistic on Wednesday (July 19) during a meeting with members of the National Media, Press, and Virtual Space faction of the Parliament. Salehi Amiri mentioned that the Ministry of Culture knows the identities of the administrators of 10,000 Telegram channels and has prepared a bulletin of the top 100 Telegram channels in Iran to share with the parliament representatives. He also deemed it 'impossible' to confront the flow of virtual information but added that 'we should not surrender or be passive in this regard; rather, we must manage the conditions.' The Minister stated that 'content production and access to information for the people must be maintained healthily.' The mobile social network 'Telegram' currently has millions of members in Iran, and efforts by the judiciary to completely block it have so far been unsuccessful. Mahmoud Vaezi, the Minister of Communications and Information Technology, also announced to reporters that voice communication on this social network has been 'filtered' in Iran by order of the judiciary. Vaezi stated that his ministry has blocked 137,000 'obscene' Telegram channels and rejected reports of negligence regarding the blocking of eight thousand Telegram channels. He said, 'We have not received reports of these eight alleged channels, and it is not correct,' and asked reporters to request details from those making such claims. The Minister of Communications also mentioned that the blocking of voice Telegram was done by the judiciary's order and is unrelated to any losses suffered by telecommunications companies. Vaezi's comments came in response to recent dissatisfaction expressed by the Attorney General regarding the Ministry of Communications' performance in filtering Telegram channels. Mohammad Jafar Montazeri recently stated that 'the Ministry of Communications is obligated to monitor the virtual space and to act according to directives issued by the Attorney General.' Montazeri added, 'Our complaint against the Ministry of Communications is that they do not block and filter some channels and sites that should be closed and filtered based on judicial orders or the approval of the working group.' According to IRNA, Telegram is one of the most popular social networks in Iran, with millions of users, and it is reported that around 100,000 channels have been created by Iranian users, producing over 1.2 million posts daily. As this news agency noted, despite not being among the world's most popular networks and not even ranking in the top 10 globally, Telegram has the highest user base in Iran.