Big brother is watching them
La liberté d’expression menacée en Iran.
Telegram est une application gratuite de messagerie pour téléphones mobiles et ordinateurs. On y échange de manière cryptée messages, photos, vidéos et autres documents. Elle est réputée pour son inviolabilité. En Iran, à l’approche des élections, son utilisation dérange et l’état a décidé de prendre des mesures drastiques et bien peu démocratiques…
Iranians love Telegram. With approximately 20 million Iranian users, it’s the most widely used messaging app in the country. Iranians join channels based on their interests and spend hours reading, sharing pictures and videos, and chatting about sports, entertainment and news. But also politics.
2.Over the years, Telegram has helped quench Iranians’ thirst for online political expression in a country where Twitter and Facebook are banned. But leading up to Iran’s presidential election in May, Telegram is now seen by some as a force that’s stifling political speech.
3.That’s because in recent months Iranian security and intelligence agencies have begun arresting Telegram users and now require those who run popular Telegram channels to apply for permits — disclosing their identities. 4.Government officials have justified the move to the local media by saying it’s a matter of national security. Users and industry experts, however, say it has another effect: deterring political discourse.
FREE SPEECH?
5. That could pose a problem for Telegram, which touts itself as a messaging app that protects user privacy and insists “politically motivated censorship” goes against its founders’ principles. It’s a conflict familiar to many international social media firms, which must balance their free speech ideals against the varying rules of the countries where they operate.
6.Founded by brothers Pavel and Nikolai Durov three years ago as a messaging service with a focus on privacy, Telegram has grown to 100 million monthly active users. It offers messaging and group chat features with the option of encrypted communication and popular channels, where the users who create them can share ideas, articles, pictures and videos with followers.
STRICT RULES
7. Those who run channels have had a level of anonymity on the service. But in December, the Supreme Council of Cyberspace, Iran’s main agency tasked with internet policy, established laws ordering the operators of Telegram channels inside the country with more than 5,000 followers to obtain a permit from Iran’s Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance by the end of February or face prosecution. As of January, around 700 Telegram channel administrators have sought permits, according to Iran’s Tasnim News agency.
8.In addition, applicants are required to add an automated bot to their Telegram channel as a co-administrator. There’s concern the bots could allow authorities to identify — and potentially prosecute — users for the channels they follow.
9.Their presence is leading some to censor their speech or stay out of political channels
altogether, according to Amir Rashidi, an internet security researcher at the New Yorkbased Center for Human Rights in Iran.
10.“If the (Iranian government) collects Telegram usernames, they can pass them to that ‘bot’ and create a map of who is following any type of Telegram channels,” Rashidi said.
CENSORSHIP
11. It isn’t unusual for state authorities to target individuals for online dissent. Last December, a handful of Iranians in the fashion industry were prosecuted for posting pictures on social networking sites such as Instagram, which officials argued promoted “Western culture.”
12.In January, officials in Iran’s Hormozgan Province shut down around 80 Telegram channels and arrested 32 people managing those channels, according to Iran’s semi-official ISNA channel, accusing them of “spreading lies, disturbing public order, creating fear and promoting immoral and anti-cultural material.” 13. And in February, Iran’s conservative Fars News Agency reported that authorities detained several administrators of Telegram channels.
14.The crackdown has heightened fear among Telegram users, including journalists, activists and lawyers, who worry political statements — even those made on other platforms — could have major consequences if they wind up on Telegram.
15.Fatemeh Jamalpur, a journalist who moved to the U.S. from Tehran a few months ago, said she and her colleagues scour popular Iranian Telegram channels to make sure comments they made on Facebook or Twitter have not been republished there by channel administrators.
16.“My friends in Iran, when they see their tweets republished in these popular channels that talk about politics, they worry. It’s danger- ous for us that they republish these tweets,” she said.
TELEGRAM
17. Telegram insists it isn’t cooperating with the Iranian government, which established a website outside the app where channel administrators must register.
18.“Our rules are the same for any country, including Iran and other countries in the Middle East: We do not share data with governments, and we do not engage in political censorship,” Telegram spokesman Markus Ra said.
19.In the past, Telegram says it has fought back against the Iranian government’s request to hand over user data and move its servers to Iran. The Berlin-based company did not respond to repeated questions about future operations in Iran now that Iranian officials are implementing regulations that appear to limit speech on its platform.
Telegram has helped quench Iranians’ thirst for online political expression.