The access requests would go through the TIC to reach the app’s servers and their responses would come back through the TIC to the mobile phone operators or ISPs and finally to individual subscribers in Iran.įiltering can take place at two points during this process. Previously, when someone tried to access an app like Telegram in Iran, mobile phone operators or ISPs would send that request to the TIC because it had exclusive control of the gateway that sends and receives online data in Iran. But the ban on Telegram has revealed that the TIC’s authority has been eclipsed.Īn investigation by the Center for Human Rights in Iran (CHRI) has found that since May 6, 2018, Iranian mobile phone operators and internet service providers (ISP) have changed their filtering system, enabling them to directly block requests to access Telegram before they reach the TIC, the country’s primary network carrier. The TIC’s board members include six cabinet ministers alongside officials from the judiciary and security agencies, such as the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps or Intelligence Ministry. The members would meet to rule on censorship and filtering requests and their decisions would be enforced by government agencies such as the Telecommunications Infrastructure Company (TIC). This was unusual because online content in Iran was previously banned by the legal authority of the institutions in charge of censorship, such as the Working Group to Determine Instances of Criminal Content (WDICC).īut the latest ban has revealed that the judiciary now has the same authority.īefore the ban, the principle body in charge of censoring and filtering online content was the WDICC, whose members, including security and media organizations, include representatives from the three branches of state.

Telegram, used by an estimated 40 million Iranians, was blocked by order of an assistant prosecutor on April 30, 2018.

Iran’s ban on the widely used Telegram messaging app has revealed a new state tactic for blocking access to or “ filtering ” online and digital content in the country: by order of the judiciary.

Telegrami online