The App Destroying Iran's Currency (foreignpolicy.com)

Iranians are using the messaging app Telegram to spread fake news about the rial -- and make a profit for themselves. From a report: Iranian President Hassan Rouhani owes his re-election in large part to the messaging app Telegram. During Iran's 2017 presidential election, Iranians relied on the app as a rare source of uncensored news about the race, in which Rouhani was not the candidate most favored by hard-liners. Just one year later, Telegram may end up becoming Rouhani's downfall. The app is at the center of Iran's accelerating currency crash.

The Iranian rial was generally acknowledged to have been on a stable path until May, when U.S. President Donald Trump exited the Iran nuclear deal. Prior to the U.S. withdrawal, one U.S. dollar was worth around 37,000 rials; immediately afterwards, a single dollar jumped to around 44,000 rials. The rial has continued to slump ever since, dropping to 50,000 to the dollar, and then 80,000 rials, and then 190,000 during Rouhani's speech at the United Nations General Assembly in September. Right now, it is at 120,500 rials. But it isn't just U.S. sanctions and the fundamental weaknesses of the Iranian economy that have contributed to Iran's currency freefall. It's also the deliberate circulation of rumors and fake news on Telegram by Iranian currency traders and middlemen out to make a profit.

Comments

Donald Trump upset

[Ukab the Great]

âoeThis is an outrage! I was going to destroy that currency!â

rial news

[mermeid007]

Did he mean to say fake as in not rial?

Re:rial news

[Anonymous Coward]

I know you're joking, but I'll provide a serious response nevertheless.

Iranians don't really use Rial when discussing prices. They use Toman. 1 million Rial equals 100.000 Toman, which is mostly expressed as "100". So 10USD would be "120". They definitely do not consider themselves millionaires, but rather victims of petty fights between their own and US/Saudi/Israeli politicians.

Nevertheless, going to an exchange office in Iran is an interesting experience. 100USD or 100EUR goes a long way in the country and you do need a bag to hold all the local notes, because it definitely will not fit in your wallet.

At gas stations attendants walk around with a big wad of bills in their hand for change, even though gas in many places is only 0.10USD / liter.

I call B.S.

[rsilvergun]

An app isn't killing their currency, the United States reckless foreign policy is. It's pretty obvious, what with the sanctions and us backing out of the deal that was and is still working that we've decided it's time for a "regime change". It's the same bloody thing we did in Iraq with the added bonus that we're going to wreck their economy first.

What bothers me is that not only is it so transparent what we're doing but that nobody particularity cares. You'd think Americans on all sides would be pretty angry that we're overthrowing gov'ts left and right. Outside of a few left wing news outlets and the BBC I don't see anyone talking about it.

Re: I call B.S.

[phantomfive]

Despite all the anger at Bush after the Iraq invasion, before the war, most Americans supported it. The most telling point for me at that time was a commentator who said, "Most Americans would answer the protest 'no blood for oil' with 'why not?" Arguably people weren't upset about invading Iraq, they were upset that Bush didn't get the job done quickly. Win already. For comparison, people were basically OK with the Lybia invasion under Obama, too, even if some Republicans complain a ton about Benghazi.

Re: I call B.S.

[MobyDisk]

a commentator who said, "Most Americans would answer the protest 'no blood for oil' with 'why not?"

(Which Bush? Which war? I assume you are referring to Operation Desert Shield, under George Bush Jr, in 2003.)

A commentator may have said that, but it is not true. Americans did not think invading Iraq was about oil. At the time, oil prices were very low so such motivation would have been weak. They were convinced that Saddam Hussein was developing nuclear weapons, that he was behind the 9/11 attacks, and that he held a store of chemical weapons. The public wanted revenge for 9/11 and were willing to attack whatever strawman the government assigned the blame to. They knew from experience in the prior war in 1991, that oil prices were not going to go down.

Re:I call B.S.

[Dragonslicer]

What bothers me is that not only is it so transparent what we're doing but that nobody particularity cares. You'd think Americans on all sides would be pretty angry that we're overthrowing gov'ts left and right.

Why would anyone think that? The US has been overthrowing governments for decades. Why would people on all sides suddenly be angry about it? The people that didn't like it 30 years ago still don't like it, and the people that didn't care 30 years ago still don't care.

Re:Fundemental weakness

[AuMatar]

Strong dependence on a single commodity (oil). When oil drops, as it is now, the economy suffers.

Bad headline

[Anonymous Coward]

Even the summary says what is really destroying the currency - " deliberate circulation of rumors and fake news". Telegram (the app) is not at fault. It might be ENABLING the destruction of the currency, but it's not CAUSING it.

Re:Fundemental weakness

[gtall]

That and they must support the clergy parasites and their military having their palms into various sectors of their economy. They are also funding stupid wars in Syria and Yemen, meddling in Iraq and Lebanon. Iran is willing to fight until the last Arab dies...which says a lot since Iranians are mostly Persians, not Arabs.

None of what you just wrote is true

[rsilvergun]

that "Plane full of cash and gold" was us giving them back money that was theirs. We'd gotten ahold of about $6 billion of their money and basically stole it. You can do that if you're at war. We're not.

And they don't have nukes. Even after Trump reneged on the deal they keep following it. Just like Iraq there are no weapons of mass destruction. We've got independent investigators confirming that.

Fact it, Trump wants a war. Just like Bush needed one to stay in power. You know this. You're either Trolling or being paid to Troll. Either way it pisses me off. We're spending trillions overthrowing governments. Meanwhile we don't have universal healthcare and tuition free college. Both of which are killing us on the competitive world stage.

Re:None of what you just wrote is true

[DNS-and-BIND]

Fun fact: you know who wrote the infamous false flag WMD memo that was used as justification to start the Iraq War? Robert S. Mueller III. Yup, the same one. The smoking gun right here.

The Bush administration's central justification for the Iraq war was the belief that former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction and could transfer them to militants. No such weapons were found after the invasion.

Here's video evidence of Mueller lying to Congress. He gave the impression that the FBI, the trusted organization that would never lie, approved of the invasion as absolutely necessary. Because Iraq was going to give WMD to Al-Qaeda, despite Saddam utterly hating Islamists and Al-Qaeda utterly hating nationalists like Saddam.

Re:Reckless is letting Iran have nuclear weapons

[Tablizer]

Reckless was not supporting full fledged revolutions, like Obama chose to do.

USA's attempts at meddling several decades ago is how Khomeini got into power. Meddling backfires more often than not. You make it sound like a sure-shot thing. The newer crew always think they are better at meddling.

The rest of your accusations are too vague to evaluate. No negotiations will give us everything we want; we'll have to make trade-offs. To think one can magically get everything they want without making concessions to the other side is silly and/or arrogant.