Recently, the Secretary of Iran’s Filtering Committee announced that 40,000 Telegram channels working against the regime have been discovered. The committee stated that 8,000 of them have not yet been blocked.
Abdulsamad Khoramabadi, an advisor to Iran’s public prosecutor’s office, talked about the state of cyberspace and the filtering policy on social networks in an interview with the Deputy Minister of Communication, Mohammad Javad Azari Jahromi, according to the state-run Mehr News. He stated that more than 30% of the channels are being actively used against the national security of the country.
Many criminal channels have been identified in cyberspace, according to the regime’s Deputy Attorney General, who said, “We report all these channels to the Ministry of Intelligence on a daily basis. Therefore, this Ministry sends these channels to related authorities in order to be blocked.”
More than two-thirds of cyberspace is used for illegal acts, reported the Secretary of Iran’s Filtering Committee, who admitted, “Many cyberspace bases are not under our control.” He added,” we have identified 8,000 criminal open channels and reported them to the Ministry of Intelligence. These channels are actively working against the national security, public morality and the sanctity of the regime.”
Khoramabadi further stated that the Ministry of Intelligence should warn administrators to block these channels. He said, “Telegram does not approve our request and therefore no action has been taken in this regard. We do not say that the cyberspace has been abandoned. Nevertheless, much of the country’s cyberspace is uncontrollable.”
When asked, “How are the criminal channels detected?” the Secretary of Iran’s Filtering Committee responded, “We have an electronic system by which we identify the channels and report them to the Ministry of Intelligence.”
Khoramabadi said additionally, “We have currently identified 40,000 Telegram criminal channels of which have changed their names or started a new activity. However, 20,000 criminal channels have been identified and 8,000 of them were actively working against the sanctities as well as the national security.”
In reference to the activities of the Mujahedeen (PMOI/MEK) in this field, Khoramabadi acknowledged that, “The PMOI (MEK) is operating its channels easily despite the fact that it is not allowed to publish a book against the regime and revolution in the country. However, the enemies of the Islamic Republic pass the anti-regime contents to people online and no one will stop them.”
He concluded by saying, “However, the Ministry of Communication announced that Telegram Company does not execute our orders.”
