Russia and Iran ban Telegram causing protest in Moscow

In the month past, Russia’s court gave authorisation to ban the messaging application Telegram and now it is the turn of the Iranian government to ban the application as its causing unrest among the people.

Telegram a cloud based messaging application that is founded by the Russian entrepreneur Pavel Durov which allows its users to exchange messages, videos, photos etc. has been banned by the authorities in Russia followed with the ban in Iran.

Telegram gained huge popularity in Russia with millions of active users and in Iran which is estimated to have around 40 million users which is roughly half of the country’s population. Authorities in both countries have requested from Internet service providers to block access to the application.

As Reuters quoted Iran’s state TV saying:

Considering various complaints against the Telegram social networking app by Iranian citizens, and based on the demand of security organizations to confront the illegal activities of Telegram, the judiciary has banned its usage in Iran

followed by the Iranian judiciary commenting that it has banned Telegram because of “propaganda against the establishment, terrorist activities, spreading lies to incite public opinion, anti-government protests and pornography.”

Telegram joins the list of banned social media networks in Iran as it has already banned Facebook and Twitter and they are launching a new application to replace telegram called Soroush.

Almost two weeks after the ban by the Russian government thousands of protesters have gathered in Moscow to protest against the Telegram ban.

Protesters threw paper planes which is the Telegram’s logo and shouted:

We won’t be silent!” and “Russia will be free!

Pavel Durov the founder of Telegram tweeted:

Pavel Durov thanks people who stand by Telegram.

Google search trends show an increase in virtual private network searches as it allows users to mask their ip adresses and make use of the application’s services.

Russia’s search trends for VPN

See also:

Iran Government Bans Telegram, Accuses App of Causing Widespread Unrest

Iran’s judiciary bans use of Telegram messaging app: state TV

Iran Bans Telegram, an App Used By Half the Country

Russia internet freedom: Mass rally in Moscow against Telegram ban

Tesla in conflict with National Transportation Safety Board after autopilot crash investigation

 

Crashed Tesla car.

Walter Huang an Apple engineer died on March 23 after his Tesla car crashed while it was on Autopilot, following a statement release from Tesla claiming that the responsibility of the accident is on the driver.

A statement that was sent to Dan Noyes on April 10 by Tesla saying “Autopilot requires the driver to be alert and have hands on the wheel… the crash happened on a clear day with several hundred feet of visibility ahead, which means that the only way for this accident to have occurred is if Mr. Huang was not paying attention to the road.”

Tesla came to this statement after analysing the logs from the crashed car finding out that the car was in Autopilot but the driver was warned to put his hands on the wheel. The logs showed that the driver’s hand were not on the wheel 6 seconds prior to the crash.

NTSB was disturbed after the statement saying that Tesla “violated the party agreement by releasing investigative information before it was vetted and confirmed by the NTSB”.

Tesla decided to withdraw from the agreement stating “We don’t believe this is right and we will be making an official complaint to Congress” and that it will request to “understand the reasoning behind their focus on the safest cars in America while they ignore the cars that are the least safe.”

Tesla and other companies such as Mercedes-Benz, Audi, Cadillac compete in developing semi-autonomous systems with their main aim to make the road safer but one can argue that these systems are not perfect.

Tesla claims you are 3.7 times less likely to be involved in a fatal accident if you’ve got Autopilot but that doesn’t mean that accidents cause by the autonomous system are acceptable and if in any case it was the system’s fault then the details of the crash should be released to the public and not remain behind close doors until the investigation will be completed.