Science and Technology

CHRI- A few weeks after major protests erupted across Iran in December 2017, the majority of the country’s lawmakers signed a letter calling for a state ban on foreign social media apps to drive Iranians towards state-approved domestic alternatives. Their main focus: Telegram.

Al-Monitor – “Please see this link,” Iran’s minister of information and communications technology replied on Twitter after an internet freedom activist confronted him about net neutrality. Typically, Iranian government officials would ignore such affronts on social media, but Mohammad Javad Azari Jahromi engaged with a hyperlink to AT&T’s sponsored data program: His way of saying that they do it in …

RFL/RE – Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei met recently with “cyberspace experts” to discuss challenges that the Internet poses to Iran’s leadership, the head of the powerful Guardians Council said.

PayvandNews – The Iranian president has said his government’s measures failed to remove ban on some social apps in the country. Hassan Rouhani made the remarks during a live interview on the national TV late on Monday. Referring to his 2013 electoral campaign symbol of a key to the country’s problems, the host asked the president if his key failed …

PayavdanNews – Mercedes-Benz, a division of Daimler AG, will resume production of cars in Iran from the beginning of the new Persian year in March, ISNA news agency has reported. The company is about to produce 2,500 middle of the pack E-class cars in the year, with 20% of the production to be done inside Iran and the rest supplied …

RFL/RE – Iran’s authorities wasted little time squelching their citizens’ favorite social media as protests multiplied in December — including slapping “temporary” blocks on encrypted international apps like Telegram and Instagram, in addition to existing obstacles to Internet access.

CHRI – A majority of Iranian lawmakers have signed a letter calling for a ban on foreign social media apps to support state-led efforts to drive Iranians toward using state-approved domestic alternatives. The letter was published the same week President Hassan Rouhani lifted the ban on the widely used Telegram messaging app. “In order to protect the political and cultural …

Al-Monitor – After receiving criticism for unblocking the popular social media app Telegram, which was closed over the recent protests that rocked Iran, President Hassan Rouhani is not retreating from his position. In fact, his administration is reportedly preparing to spend money to create more digital jobs and attempt to bring Iran up to date in the cyberworld. According to …

PayvandNews – Through manufacturing of over 160,000 vehicles in Iran, Renault hit a record high in 2017, according to a report by the Communications Department of Renault Pars (a joint venture established in 2004 between France’s Renault and Iranian car makers Iran Khodro and Saipa). The report said that production of Renault in Iran witnessed a 48-percent growth in 2017 …

Al-Monitor -“Everything stopped suddenly. We are literally out of work now,” Alireza, a 24-year-old university student living in Tehran, told Al-Monitor. He is among many Iranian online entrepreneurs who have suffered major financial losses in recent days due to the authorities’ intensified online filtering, including bans on popular social media platformssuch as Telegram and Instagram.