Iranian activity against Telegram and now also against the company’s CEO

On September 26, 2017, it was published that Iran had filed charges against the CEO and founder of the Telegram app, Pavel Durov, due to this application being used as a popular means of communications among operatives and supporters of the Islamic State as well as among criminal elements.

The company’s CEO Pavel Durov said on his Telegram channel that Messenger Telegram can cut all ties with the governments of Russia and Iran since it regularly faces accusations and restrictions. According to him, it may not help those regimes, as “in the end, freedom and privacy of private life will prevail.”

According to Durov, the situation in Iran is not much better than in China or Russia. However, it seems that there is an improvement in the right direction, as in spite of differences among government officials in Iran on the manner of regulating the internet, this country hasn’t blocked the application yet.

Durov published several messages regarding this issue on his Twitter account, including one stating that “It seems I am not going to Iran anytime soon.”

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