Iran’s state TV is reporting that the Supreme Council of Cyberspace has set a one-year deadline for foreign social media companies to provide authorities with all of their data related to Iranian users, or else face a ban.
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The measure will reportedly affect Telegram in particular, which is an instant messaging app with more than 20 million registered users in the Islamic country. The Council further said that the latter was based on the guidelines and concerns of Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
“This isn’t about data protection or anything, this is about spying on the users”. However, Telegram, a messaging service developed in 2013 as a mobile app, may be the most affected platform. Iran observed an increased use of internet service as a trend in the last few years, but Iranian agencies have responded by blocking popular websites like YouTube, Facebook, Twitter and Google Plus, among some webmail services.
Most social networks are officially blocked by the state but lots of people are able to access them via services like Virtual Private Networks (VPNs), which mask a browser’s geographical location.
Telegram, a messaging and content sharing app, has become popular in recent months among Iranians, who use it to communicate with each other and also share materials like pornography and political satire.
The requirement that the data be stored on local servers could give the government easier access to the information as then the domestic operations of the messaging companies would likely be subject to local regulations.
Iran forces foreign messaging apps and social media to store data within in borders.
Telegram users have faced the anger of the country’s internet regulators in the past. In November past year, Iranian authorities arrested administrators of over 20 groups on Telegram for spreading “immoral content”.
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Quite how many companies comply with the demands remain to be seen.
