As Iran gears up for parliamentary elections at the end of the month, an instant messaging app believed to be used by one in four Iranians is set to play a major role.
Telegram allows users to broadcast to unlimited numbers of people on public channels, with a strong emphasis on privacy protection for its users. It made headlines when it emerged that members of Islamic State were using it to broadcast propaganda. In Iran, however, which has a tech-savvy young population, it is mostly downloaded for reading news, communicating with friends or sharing jokes.
Given that Iranian state TV is the exclusive mouthpiece of hardliners – often publicly opposing the policies of Hassan Rouhani’s moderate administration – pro-reform candidates are also turning to Telegram as the most viable platform for spreading their message.
There are many compelling reasons: a poll reported by the semi-official Isna news agency estimated that at least 20 million Iranians are Telegram users, dwarfing the number using its global rival WhatsApp, and surpassing Facebook and Twitter, which are both blocked. Iranians were previously active on Viber, another messaging app, but it was also blocked by the authorities, prompting millions to switch to Telegram.
So far, the app is officially open to all Iranians. The state’s internet watchdog recently held a meeting to discuss filtering it, but decided there was no reason to do so. It is too soon to say, however, whether this signifies a realisation within the Iranian establishment that fighting its people online is futile.
Telegram was launched in 2013 by two Russian brothers, Pavel and Nikolai Durov, an entrepreneur and a computer programmer, and is based in Berlin. It describes itself as a messaging app with a focus on speed and security, usable across multiple platforms simultaneously. It also allows users to broadcast messages to large audiences publicly with its Channel function.
Rouhani has strongly advocated free access to social media and messaging apps since coming to power in 2013. His administration has significantly boosted internet speeds and bandwidth in the face of resistance from hardliners. Many of his cabinet members, including the foreign minister, Mohammad Javad Zarif, have circumvented official blocks to use Facebook and Twitter. Attempts to filter websites have not stopped Iranians accessing blocked addresses: use of VPN (virtual private network) services and anti-filtering software is widespread and a generation of young entrepreneurs have invented their own social media services, initiating an inadvertent start-up revolution.
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