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Iran Forces Messaging Apps To Move Data To Iranian Servers (techcrunch.com)
An anonymous reader writes: According a report from Reuters, the Iranian government wants to be able to track private and semi-private conversations on messaging apps, and has given companies behind popular messaging apps one year to move their data onto servers in Iran. As it stands, many social networks are already blocked in Iran, and now the government wants to control even more online communication platforms. Apps like WhatsApp and Telegram, which have become incredibly popular in Iran, allow users to communicate with no government control. With Telegram, users can contact hundreds of people by creating groups. Now, even though WhatsApp for example is required to move their data to Iranian servers, it's unlikely the government will be able to intercept messages from the app since it features end-to-end encryption. WhatsApp can't even read the content of communications -- only WhatsApp users can decrypt the messages in their conversations. Apple's iMessage also features an encrypted messaging protocol, and Telegram does too, but users need to start "secret conversations" with end-to-end encryption.
When US companies refuse to follow EU directives and laws, people here complain that the US is forcing their laws and practices on the EU. If US companies refuse to comply with Iran's demand for surveillance and censorship, will you likewise claim that the US is forcing their laws and practices on Iran?
The Iranian government will learn that only mindless conversations will be easy to intercept unencrypted. Maybe, even those will be encrypted by uses just to drive Big Brother a bit nuts. If the government shuts Internet messaging down, peer to peer networks will pop up. They can't stop technology completely.