Source: rt.com
The Iranian judiciary has issued a total ban on Telegram. The country's security services believes that the encrypted messaging app is a safe haven for terrorist cells.
"Considering various complaints against the Telegram social networking app by Iranian citizens and based on the demand of security organizations to confront the illegal activities of Telegram, the judiciary has banned its usage in Iran. All internet providers in Iran must take steps to block Telegram's website and app as of April 30."
They cite that the company has repeated refused to cooperate with Iranian authorities in their investigations of various criminal activities. In September of 2017, Iran launched a criminal probe against the messenger's CEO, Pavel Durov. They outlined how the app provides services to terrorist groups such as Islamic State and created a platform for the activities of other groups that promote and facilitate the dissemination of child pornography, human trafficking and narcotics trafficking.
Source: rt.com
Durov countered their claims insisting that Telegram's moderators have cooperated and blocked about 1,000 channels, chats and bots with extremist or pornographic content in Iran.
Source: rt.com
This ban comes on the heels of a ban placed on all Iranian government institutions from using the app. They have reverted to using other domestic messaging applications.
Iran follows Russia whose telecommunications watchdog Roskomnadzor ordered internet service providers to restrict access to all servers used by Telegram. They did so after Telegram refused to comply with Russian law by handing over encryption keys to the Russian security services. The Russian Federal Security Service repeatedly warned that the Telegram messenger was often used by terrorists. They arrested members of the Islamic State sleeper cell and discovered they were communicating using the Telegram platform. They also believe that the app was used by terrorist cells to coordinate the April 2017 attack in St. Petersburg.