Telegram in Iran

The Telegram instant messaging service has had more than 50 million users in Iran.

Following the disruptions caused by the Iranian government in the Viber and Line services, the Iranian people were attracted to Telegram. Security was the most important reason that led to its popularity. Additionally, this service permitted exchanging files up to 2 gigabytes.

The Iranian Government has repeatedly considered the topic of blocking access to Telegram and has always imposed limitations on users' access. During the protests on 8 December 2017, Telegram was blocked for more than a week and finally became available again on 23 December 2017. It was reblocked on May 10, 2018, by judicial authorities. In the judicial order of the Tehran Prosecutor's Office, it was said that Telegram must be blocked by ISPs in such a way that it could not be achieved even with tools similar to VPNs.

The two-time experience of blocking Telegram in Iran shows that Iranian users did not migrate to alternative services, such as the foreign WhatsApp, or the domestic Soroush messenger, but resorted to Internet censorship circumvention.

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