Iran is using emojis holding ‘death to America’ signs to promote a new messaging app it can use to spy on its citizens’ private conversations.
The Islamist regime is trying to convince 50 million Iranians to switch from Telegram to locally-made app Soroush which lacks its competitor’s end-to-end encryption.
Ayatollah Khamenei quit Telegram this week and has frequently blamed the program for spreading civil unrest resulting in December’s huge protests.
Iran is using emojis holding ‘death to America’ signs to promote new messaging app Soroush it can use to spy on its citizens’ private conversations
Ayatollah Khamenei quit Telegram this week and has frequently blamed the program for spreading civil unrest resulting in December’s huge protests
The regime appeared poised to ban it, following the lead of Russia, like it did with many other foreign social media platforms.
Efforts to promote Soroush, which has a tenth of Telegram’s users, include the inflammatory emojis and a competition in the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.
The emojis feature women in chadors holding placards wishing death upon Israel, America, and Freemasons, and another holding a portrait of the Ayatollah.
Soroush has the same abilities as Telegram including instant messages, groups and news feeds, and ability to do business online.
However, it doesn’t have the end-to-end encryption that prevents the state from snooping on them, which made Telegram so popular.
Iranians joked Soroush’s three-tick system represented the message being sent, the second for it being read by the person you sent it to, and the third that it’s been read by Iranian security services.
The regime appears to want access to users’ previous conversations too, as Soroush includes a tool to move all previously secure messages onto it.
Soroush (pictured) has the same abilities as Telegram including instant messages, groups and news feeds, and ability to do business online, but lacks encryption
Iran demanded Telegram give security services a back door to access users’ data, but was refused by founder Pavel Durov.
Telegram was recently banned in Russia for refusing a similar demand, with Mr Durov saying it would always ‘stand for freedom and privacy’.
The regime-backed app promoting ‘death to America’ came as Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani questioned the legitimacy of demands for a fresh nuclear deal.
U.S. President Donald Trump has frequently called for the ‘terrible deal’ to be ‘fixed’ with a new agreement, and was recently joined by France.
‘Together with a leader of a European country they say: ‘We want to decide on an agreement reached by seven parties’. What for? With what right?’ Rouhani said in a speech.
Mr Trump has fiercely criticised a three-year-old deal reached by world powers to curb Iran’s nuclear programme, and threatened to pull the U.S. out of the agreement.
Trump was eyeing a broader pact that also limited Iran’s ballistic missile programme and support for armed groups across the Middle East.
The regime-backed app promoting ‘death to America’ came as Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani questioned the legitimacy of demands for a fresh nuclear deal
U.S. President Donald Trump (left) has frequently called for the ‘terrible deal’ to be ‘fixed’ with a new agreement, and was recently joined by French President Emmanuel Macron (right)
European signatories to the 2015 deal have been scrambling to salvage it, with French President Emmanuel Macron saying on Tuesday after talks with Trump that he wished ‘for now to work on a new deal with Iran’.
Iran has repeatedly insisted it was sticking to the nuclear deal and would not negotiate over its missile programme.
Rouhani took aim at Trump – a former real estate mogul and TV reality star – and accused him of lacking in experience.
‘You are just a businessman… you have no experience in politics or law or international agreements. How can he pass judgement on international affairs?’ he said.
Rouhani insisted that by agreeing to the nuclear accord in 2015 Tehran ‘showed goodwill to the world’.
‘We wanted to prove to the world that Iran does not seek to acquire weapons of mass destruction,’ he said.