Telegram Messenger blocked in Iran

Baku. 21 October. REPORT.AZ/ Popular messaging app Telegram Messenger was blocked in Iran for a full two hours, following a week’s interference, according to the app’s founder Pavel Durov.

Report informs referring to the foreign media, Durov tweeted Tuesday that “Iranian officials want to use Telegram to spy on their citizens. We cannot and will not help them with that.”

The Iranian Ministry of Information and Communications Technology (ICT) had demanded that Telegram provide them with spying and censorship tools, according to Durov, who said he ignored the request, prompting the Iranian government to block access. When a Twitter user asked for further proof of the exchange, Durov replied that he had emails from an @ict.ir email address, the official domain for the Ministry of Information and Communications Technology website in Iran.

Iran’s ICT denied receiving any orders to block Telegram, suggesting instead technical problems were to blame.

Telegram users across Iran have reported on the outage throughout the day.

The Foreign Desk has reached out to Telegram for comment.