Iran may be tightening its grip on messaging apps
Officials reportedly order social media and messaging apps to move data on Iranian users to servers inside the country.
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The Internet is already severely censored in Iran. Now the country appears to be tightening its grip on popular messaging apps.
Iran's state news agency is reporting that the Supreme Council of Cyberspace has set a one-year deadline for foreign messaging apps to move data they hold on Iranian users onto servers inside the country, according to Reuters.
The new requirement may largely be aimed at messaging app Telegram, said Reuters, which is estimated to have 20 million users in Iran.
Iran already blocks Facebook, Twitter and many other social media and messaging sites. Of course, tech-savvy Iranians use proxy servers and other software to get around the bans.