Science and Technology

CHRI – The Center for Human Rights in Iran (CHRI) has learned that during the first two weeks of April 2018, hackers attempted to take over the email and social media accounts of several well-known Iranians and dual nationals working for charitable and academic organizations.

Iran-HRM – 70,000 Arrested on Cybernetic Activities in Iran Kamal Hadyanfar, head of FATA (Cyber Police) said 70,000 people have been arrested in Iran on cybernetic charges. “30,186 criminal channels and groups have been identified in Telegram including 23,000 channels of immoral activities, 650 anti-religious, anti-Islam and Quran channels….51% of immoral crimes is committed at Telegram, 23% at Instagram and …

Al-Monitor -The running joke on Iranian social media right now is that three green ticks on a domestic messaging app mean that not only does the sender and receiver read the message, but an intelligence officer does too. Iranians heavily relied on Telegram as a form of censorship-free internet not only to chat, but to shop, share parody videos and …

RFL/RE – Two Iranian IT experts have launched a modified version of Telegram to help their countrymen get around Tehran’s latest attempt to block the wildly popular messaging app.

HRW – The Iranian judiciary’s blocking of the messaging application Telegram is an unjustifiable restriction on freedom of expression and access to information, Human Rights Watch said today. With more than 40 million users, Telegram had become the main social media platform for Iranians. On April 30, 2018, Mizan Online News Agency, the judiciary’s news agency, reported that the prosecutor …

CHRI – Ban Unlikely to Stop Most of Telegram’s 40 Million Users in Iran The Iranian Judiciary has ordered internet service providers (ISPs) to block access to the country’s most used messaging app, Telegram, in an attempt to thwart an estimated 40 million Iranians’ open access to information. “Iran’s blocking of Telegram is another example of the state’s blatant hostility …

Radiofarda – Iran’s judiciary has banned the use of the Telegram messaging app, saying it has been used to organize attacks and street protests, according to state television and a news agency affiliated with the judiciary.

RFL/RE – Iranian authorities have ordered the social-messaging app Telegram to move its servers outside the country. The Supreme Cyberspace Council, Iran’s Internet watchdog, said in a statement on April 26 that it had canceled the license that allowed Telegram servers to be hosted in Iran. The decision means that all incoming messages have to be channeled through Iran’s government-controlled …

Radiofarda – Iran increased nominal power generation capacity by 3% to around 78.9 GW during last fiscal year, ended on March 20, the statistics of Energy Ministry’s annual report indicate.

Al-Monitor – The popular messaging app Telegram is seemingly drawing its last breaths in Iran as a number of reports indicate its likely imminent blocking.