Slashdot Mirror
Iran Bans State Bodies From Using Telegram App, Khamenei Shuts Account (reuters.com)
Iran banned government bodies on Wednesday from using the popular Telegram instant messaging app as Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei's office said his account would shut down to protect national security, Iranian media reported. From a report: ISNA news agency did not give a reason for the government ban on the service which lets people send encrypted messages and has an estimated 40 million users in the Islamic Republic. The order came days after Russia -- Iran's ally in the Syrian war -- started blocking the app in its territory following the company's repeated refusal to give Russian state security services access to users' secret messages. Iran's government banned "all state bodies from using the foreign messaging app," according to ISNA.
Wikipedia tells me that Telegram doesn't have prophet in mind. Iranians must have been offended by that.
Ezekiel 23:20
...are the fucking ads on Slashdot that jank the screen up and down for 10 fucking seconds as the load.
God Damned you Mother fucking Assholes.
And if you were a nice person you’d have “Karma: Excellent” next to your handle and the option to “Disable Advertisng”. Whatever else you might say about Slashdot they are one of the few sites I’ve seen to offer that feature.
I’ve never been interested in the various “chat apps” like Twitter, Snapchat, etc. for privacy reasons but if Telegram has been kicked out of Russia and banned by the Iranians I think that I might have to give it a look.
I can’t think of a better recommendation.
Telegram couldn't have asked for better publicity than this. Not saying I would use their service myself (I trust Moxie Marlinspike's Signal more) but a headline like "neither Putin nor Khamenei have managed to break us" is pretty badass.