Iran blocks messaging app Telegram used by protesters

Elizabeth Weise | USA TODAY

Show Caption Hide Caption Protesters try to storm police station in Iran Clashes overnight between protesters and security forces in Iran killed nine people, state television reported Tuesday, including some rioters who tried to storm a police station to steal weapons. (Jan. 2)

Iranian officials have blocked a messaging app that's being used to organize anti-government protests which have rocked the country, resulting in more than 20 deaths and hundreds of arrests.

Telegram, a free smart phone app popular in the United States and globally, has been an organizing tool for the loosely-constructed Iranian protest movement that began last week. At first focusing on the need for jobs it has since widened to include concerns about government corruption and frustration with Iran's clerical rulers.

Telegram is most often used as a simple messaging app but also offers end-to-end encryption and secret chats. It is used by millions of people globally and has been criticized by U.S. and European officials for allowing extremist groups and terrorists to communicate secretly.

The app was created by a Russian programmer, Pavel Durov, who fled his country in 2014 and now runs the company from a variety of places, which have included Berlin, London, Singapore and most recently Dubai, according to its website.

Mohammad-Javad Azari Jahromi, Iran’s Minister of Information and Communications Technology, tweeted Saturday that a Telegram channel was “encouraging hateful conduct, use of Molotov cocktails, armed uprising, and social unrest.”

@Durov: A Telegram channel is encouraging hateful conduct, use of Molotov cocktails, armed uprising, and social unrest. NOW is the time to stop such encouragements via Telegram. — MJ Azari Jahromi (@azarijahromi) December 30, 2017

Telegram CEO Durov said the company had suspended one channel that included calls to violence, which violated its terms of service. Most of the people subscribed to the channel were able to move to a new "peaceful" channel, Durov wrote.

On Tuesday Durov wrote on Twitter that while Telegram was being blocked in Iran, a rival messaging app that offers privacy, WhatsApp, was still available there.