Iran Moves To Ban Telegram App, Blocks Videos And Images To Disrupt Service

The instant messaging app, Telegram has been under fire for its encryption which prevents a third-party from intercepting messages shared on its platform. Iran has joined the list of counties at war with Telegram. The Asian country is disrupting the swapping of videos and images via the service.

Iran’s net regulator in an official statement said the sharing images and videos were banned and the move will apparently affect the “quality” of the app in the country.

Last month, Russia had banned Telegram app for refusing to submit the encryption keys to the authority to intercept messages. Russia said it was a procedure to ensure safety and after it failed to comply with the power despite the ultimatum, the site was blocked which allegedly knocked out over four million IP addresses, including cloud services from Google and Amazon

Like Russia, Iran telecoms official had given Telegram a mandate to move its servers to be routed through Iran’s Iran’s government-controlled net gateways; however, it appears that Telegram has objected to this. Iran had cancelled the app’s license to site its servers in the country, and this indicates that the site has to be removed from Iran’s borders.

Nevertheless, Telegram has not responded if it had removed its technical infrastructure from the country.

The app records about 50 million users and is famous for its encryption technology which makes it hard for the security services to peek through the contents or messages exchanged between users.

The app has been a threat to the government and is believed to be the mastermind of anti-establishment protests within the country. Ayatollah Ali Khamenei had earlier this week, shut down his Telegram channel setting an example for his followers. He said the decision would help “safeguard the

national interest.” It became apparent that the next line of action would be an outright ban.

Government officials and workers in the civil service have also been advised to jettison the app for an alternative, Soroush whose technical infrastructure would obviously be planted in Iran.