According to the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology, 13 million Iranians are currently using Telegram, said Mohammad Hassan Entezari, secretary of the Supreme Council of Cyberspace. Speaking on a television program, Entezari said, “Cyberspace concerns our culture and society, hence we need new strategies to be able to face the recent developments in the field of IT. Otherwise we are going to lose our national identity, which is currently under threat.” The official insisted on having a local social network and said this could benefit us economically. According to Entezari, a filtering plan has been proposed to the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology for making content “more beneficial” on social networks. “Filtration is a worldwide policy and UNESCO, for instance, has a workgroup to prevent child abuse on the Net,” he said.
