Economy

Iran may shut down Telegram app for security reasons

Updated : March 31, 2018 10:16 AM IST

Alaeddin Boroujerdi, Head of the Parliamentary Committee, said the decision was a response to what he called Telegram's destructive role in anti-government protests, as quoted by the news site.

The protests began in late December in which at least 25 people were killed and nearly 5,000 reportedly arrested.

The instant messaging app, with over 40 million users in Iran, was temporarily shut down during the protests in early January.

Iran may shut down Telegram app for security reasons

Iran will block Telegram app services for national security reasons, an Iranian news site Mashreghnews.ir reported.

Alaeddin Boroujerdi, Head of the Parliamentary Committee, said that the decision was made "at the highest level" and the app would be replaced by a similar local system, the site reported on Saturday.

Boroujerdi, as quoted by the news site, said the decision was a response to what he called Telegram's destructive role in anti-government protests that began in late December in which at least 25 people were killed and nearly 5,000 reportedly arrested.

The instant messaging app, with over 40 million users in Iran, was temporarily shut down during the protests in early January. However, some 10% of users reached it through proxies and VPN services.

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