April 19, 2019
The ban on the social media messaging service Telegram has seemingly faded away. Telegram was banned with great fanfare one year ago, presumably because it was being used by dissidents to organize the protests that began in December 2017. The public reduced its use of Telegram to a degree but did not abandon it. However, state agencies did abandon the service. Now, state broadcasting and other agencies—and even the press office of the Presidency—have returned to Telegram. The Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA), the state-run news agency, even carried a story headlined, “People Return to Telegram.” The Iranian Students News Agency reported that 60 percent of the public used Telegram before the ban, with usage dropping to 56 percent after the ban.