The new app Soroush comes preloaded with emojis featuring a chador-clad woman clutching a picture of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, and placards wishing death to Israel, America and Freemasons
Iran state machinery is promoting a homegrown messaging app which comes equipped with a "Death to America" emoji. The objective of the promotion is to get users to abandon the popular Telegram messenger app which Iran blames for a series of anti-establishment protests in the country.
The new app Soroush comes preloaded with emojis featuring a chador-clad woman clutching a picture of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, and placards wishing death to Israel, America and Freemasons.
Ayatollah Khamenei leading the charge closed down his account on Telegram and urged others to do the same. "The activities of the presidency's Telegram channel have stopped in support of domestic messaging apps," state broadcaster IRIB reported.
Iran’s elite Quds Force has also announced a contest among its soldiers to promote the app. Five lucky people who install the app and use it will be given gold coins. Ironically though, the competition was announced on Force’s Telegram channel.
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Telegram, which promises 'a secure and private way of messaging', is used by about 50 million Iranians. The authorities have blamed its use for the spread of anti-establishment protests in the country in December, last year.
Soroush closely resembles the Telegram app and it also allows people to join channels, follow the news, and conduct business online.
Despite promises of user privacy, people are apprehensive about using Soroush for the fear that their communication may be monitored.
One running joke says that Soroush's three-tick message receipt notification (as opposed to Telegram's two ticks) confirms that an intelligence officer has read the message in addition to the sender and receiver.
The company behind Soroush claims that it has five million registered users and about 2.4 million active daily users.
To the users who make the transition to the new app from Telegram, it offers tools to import messages and other data.
Telegram and repressive regimes
There is a ban on using foreign apps by public institutions in Iran and there have been reports that Iranian government may soon ban Telegram app in the country. Though Iran's Supreme Leader, president and other officials are still active on Twitter and Facebook.
The Islamist regime’s demand to Telegram to abide by its rules has repeatedly been turned down by Telegram’s founder Pavel Durov, who says that the company will always "stand for freedom and privacy".
Recently, the app was banned by Russia after Durov refused to hand over the encryption keys to the Russian authorities.
Telegram, founded by a Russian man, is currently headquartered in Dubai. The Telegram team has marketed itself as one of the most secure app available. Experts have, however, pointed out flaws in it, criticising for not using end-to-end encryption by default.