Iranian authorities deny allegations that they have temporarily blocked a mobile messaging app popular in Iran.
Russian Internet entrepreneur Pavel Durov, the founder of the Telegram app, said on October 20 that the service was temporarily blocked in Iran after the company refused to help the authorities "spy" on Iranian citizens.
Speaking in Tehran on October 25, Iranian Minister of Information and Communications Technology Mahmud Vaezi said Telegram's services were disrupted for several days due to "disconnections in some communications channels."
He added that Tehran had previously called on Telegram to block "immoral content."
Iran has one of the world's toughest online censorship regimes, with tens of thousands of websites, including social media and news sites, being filtered over content deemed sensitive or immoral.
Vaezi said the policy of the Iranian government was that social-networking sites that conform with Iranian laws are not blocked.
