Iran orders messaging app makers to store data inside the country

Iran has ordered foreign messaging app to transfer data and activity records of Iranian users to local servers within a year, a move that will give the country a greater ability to monitor and censor the online activity of its people.

“Foreign messaging companies active in the country are required to transfer all data and activity linked to Iranian citizens into the country in order to ensure their continued activity,” Iran’s Supreme Council of Cyberspace said in new regulations carried by state news agency IRNA on Sunday.

The requirement that the data be stored on local servers could give the government easier access to the information as then the domestic operations of the messaging companies would likely be subject to local regulations.

Telegram may be the first affected

Telegram, which is very popular in the country and has an user base of about 20 million, or one of every four persons in the country.Telegram offers a free encrypted messages service with the possibility to sustain secret chats, and its use is extremely popular in the Middle East and Iran. Actually, Telegram is now surpassing the use of email and web blogs in Iran, with more than 20 million users in 2015.

In October 2015, the service was blocked by Iranian authorities in order to control the flow of “inadequate content,” and immoral content seems to be easily shared through the secure platform of Telegram. That is the main reason why this company is the first on the sight of Iranian authorities.

Iran’s controls on internet access

Internet censorship in Iran is a complicated issue. Iran observed an increased use of internet service as a trend in the last few years, but Iranian agencies have responded by blocking popular websites like YouTube, Facebook, Twitter and Google Plus, among some webmail services.

However, an incredible amount of users managed to surpass the controls and censorship to web platforms, by using different software and security mechanisms to mock the Iranian control system.

Servers around the world

Social media and other internet platforms use servers in different countries all over the world. The United States holds the biggest amount of servers, between 390 and 600 million, but Canada, Europe, and Latin America also have a considerable amount of servers.

Most internet platforms do not reveal the location of their servers in order to provide a safer service, securing the data of their users in unknown locations.

Social media users reacted with concern to the planned changes.

“Telegram’s data centres are to be moved inside the country so they can delete what they want and arrest who they want,” @Mehrdxd said in a tweet.

“I would stop using #Telegram if the servers are moved inside the country because it would not be safe anymore,” @Gonahkar (Guilty) wrote in a tweet