The Iranian government “does not approve” of the judiciary’s recent blockage of the Telegram messaging app, President Hassan Rouhani said on Saturday.
“The recent blocking and filtering of Telegram was not implemented by the government and the government does not approve of it,” read a post on Mr. Rouhani’s Instagram account.
A Tehran judge had ordered telecom companies to “totally block” Telegram after accusations that the app has allowed armed opposition groups to fuel unrest and has not cooperated with counter-terrorism efforts.
The move highlighted differences of opinion between the government of reformist Mr. Rouhani, elected to a second term in 2017, and ultra-conservatives who control the judiciary and security services.
Telegram is Iran’s most popular social network with some 40 million users, around half the population.
Social networks Facebook and Twitter are also blocked in Iran but accessible via virtual private network (VPN) software which can circumvent internet blackouts. The judiciary wants to prevent this in the case of Telegram.
