There's no way around a block. How different countries are trying to shut down Telegram—and why it almost never works

Иран запретил мессенджер ещё в 2018 году. Сегодня им пользуется 80% населения страны. Это история о том, как государства раз за разом проигрывают битву с приложением на телефоне.

"No country in the world uses Telegram the way Iran does"

By 2017, Telegram had become more than just a messaging app for Iranians. 40 million monthly active users, 25 million — every day. More than 40% of the country’s total internet traffic passed through Telegram. Channels replaced websites, and bots — software. The advertising revenue of Telegram's Persian-language segment exceeded $100 million a year.

According to the most conservative estimates by Iranian authorities, Telegram created jobs for 200,000 Iranians. In most cases, Iranian startups began with a Telegram channel.

A prominent entrepreneur who ran his business through Telegram said in an interview: "Most people hadn't even heard of the internet before Telegram."

All of this made any attempt to block the messaging app politically risky. During the 2017 election campaign, President Rouhani stated that he opposed the block, and this had a positive effect on his approval rating.

Protests, a channel featuring Molotov cocktails, and the first shutdown

On December 28, 2017, mass anti-government protests broke out in Iran. Telegram channels became the main platform for the protests—unlike the 2009 protests, when media outlets loyal to the opposition played a key role.

One channel with more than a million subscribers began posting not only updates on the protests but also calls to participate in them, including instructions on how to make Molotov cocktails.

Telegram and Instagram have been blocked in Iran since late December 2017—the Supreme National Security Council issued a special resolution to that effect. The authorities referred to the measures as “temporary restrictions.” Pavel Durov explained that the block was due to his team’s refusal to comply with Tehran’s demand to shut down channels publishing information about the opposition.

The ban remained in place until January 13, 2018. According to Reuters, the messaging app was unblocked due to the financial losses it caused businesses—several companies suffered losses, and about 100,000 people lost their jobs.

But the conservatives didn't give up.

"Block it so that even a VPN won't work"

On April 30, 2018, an Iranian court handed down a final verdict: "In light of complaints about Telegram's illegal activities, the judicial system has banned its use in Iran.". The goal was clearly defined: to make it impossible to access the service on any platform, even with a VPN.

The government created the Iranian messaging app Soroush — essentially, a Telegram clone with Persian stickers (like the MAX messenger). On one of the stickers, a woman was holding a portrait of the Ayatollah; on another, there was a poster that read “Death to America.”

The result was predictable. According to a GAMAAN survey conducted in the summer of 2023, 43% of Iranians said they use Telegram frequently, and another 29% — sometimes, 8% — occasionally. Total — 80% of the population. Meanwhile, in 2021, the Iranian Statistical Center reported that approximately 45 million people in the country use Telegram.

Soroush же ожидал провал. Через пять лет после запуска, по данным того же GAMAAN, лишь 3% иранцев заявили, что используют его часто. Функционер иранского Национального центра киберпространства признал, что в Soroush зарегистрировано 12,2 миллиона человек, но активными пользователями являются лишь около 2,2 миллиона.

How Iranians Got Around the Blockade

As soon as the ban was imposed, millions of Iranians simply downloaded a VPN. Iranian lawmaker Mahmoud Sadeghi calculated: During the two-week blockade in January 2018, 30 million Iranians — 75% of Telegram users in the country — did not switch to local messaging apps, but instead used VPN services.

During the protests following the death of Mahsa Amini in September 2022, Telegram usage more than doubled—even though the messaging app had been blocked for four years and was accessible only via a VPN.

The authorities attempted to shut down this channel as well. In September 2023, the Cybersecurity Committee banned “unauthorized VPNs,” mandating the use of only licensed proxies within the country. At the same time, a crackdown began: between 2022 and 2024, Iranians were sentenced to decades in prison and even executed for sharing political posts.

Nevertheless, the messaging app hasn't gone anywhere. Telegram has remained popular in Iran not only among the general public but also within government agencies themselves.

What's Happening Now: Negotiations with Durov

By the end of 2025, the Iranian authorities seemed to have grown tired of their own blocking measures. Iranian Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf stated that he considers blocking social media during peacetime to be a mistake and reported that the authorities are exploring the possibility of unblocking Telegram.

Iran's Ministry of Information and Communication Technology is already in negotiations with Telegram. The conditions for unblocking the service have been set: restricting content that promotes terrorism, removing material in response to complaints from citizens, cooperating with the Iranian judicial system, and not sharing user data with foreign intelligence agencies.

Whether Durov will agree to these terms remains to be seen. He rejected some of them as far back as 2018.

China: The Only One That Almost Succeeded

At the other end of the spectrum is China. Telegram was blocked there in July 2015—after Chinese human rights lawyers used the messaging app to criticize the Communist Party.

Chinese censorship is the hardest to bypass—VPN services have to use special traffic obfuscation techniques to prevent their traffic from being identified as VPN traffic. Nevertheless, Telegram is available in China as well—for those who are willing to spend the time and money on a reliable VPN.

Russia: The Failure of 2018, New Attempts, and an Impending Blockade

Russia’s experience is most similar to Iran’s—and, in its time, ended in just as much of a failure. The blocking of Telegram in Russia began on April 16, 2018, following a court ruling—due to Durov’s refusal to provide the FSB with the keys needed to decrypt messages.

During the first week, Roskomnadzor blocked more than 18 million IP addresses. Telegram continued to operate. At the same time, completely unrelated services were affected: Viber, Google, websites of Moscow State University and the Higher School of Economics, payment systems, and even systems for selling electronic compulsory auto insurance policies—they all used the same IP addresses. Over the 10 days of the block, Roskomnadzor received 46,000 complaints. On April 27, Twitter, Facebook, and VKontakte were added to the registry for several hours.

During the first week of the block, the messaging app lost only 3% of its active users in Russia, but the number of channel views increased — from 138.9 million to 159.5 million. On June 18, 2020, Roskomnadzor announced the lifting of the restrictions—even though the court’s order to block the site had not been overturned.

Immediately after the ban was lifted, officials at the municipal, regional, and federal levels began launching their own Telegram channels en masse. Roskomnadzor also launched its own official channel on the messaging app in November 2020.

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Russia, 2025–2026: “Slowdown” as a New Tactic

In 2025, Russia took a different approach—instead of a head-on assault, it began methodically chipping away at its functions, bit by bit.

In August 2025, Roskomnadzor blocked the ability to make calls on Telegram and WhatsApp under the pretext of combating telephone fraud. Critics pointed out that scammers are also active on messaging apps controlled by the authorities—the measure apparently had a different purpose.

In October 2025, problems with access to messaging apps began in the southern regions and then spread to 34 regions, including Moscow and St. Petersburg. Roskomnadzor officially confirmed “partial restrictions.”

As of February 10, 2026, the agency began slowing down media files. According to Maksut Shadaev, head of the Ministry of Digital Development, the messaging app failed to respond to approximately 150,000 requests to remove prohibited content. Since the beginning of 2025, Roskomnadzor has sent Telegram about 305,000 requests to remove illegal content.

On February 26, 2026, RBC, citing sources close to the Kremlin, reported...that Telegram may be completely blocked in Russia in early April. It is expected that the messaging app will continue to operate only on the front end.

"Max" Messenger: A Government-Backed Clone with Surveillance Features

Alongside these restrictions, the authorities are promoting an alternative. Max, a messaging app developed by the VK Group, has been in operation since the spring of 2025 and visually bears a strong resemblance to Telegram. By December 2025, 75 million users had registered on the platform—more than half of Russia’s population.

The rationale behind the move was stated quite bluntly. Boyarsky, head of the State Duma Committee on Information Policy, stated that Telegram would not be blocked in Russia until channels providing “accurate coverage of the agenda” had migrated to Max. In other words, a complete block is merely a matter of time and the speed at which pro-government media migrate to Max.

Security experts describe Max in much harsher terms. According to them, installing the app is tantamount to voluntarily putting on an “electronic ankle monitor”: it potentially collects data not only on messages but also on contacts, biometric information, and other user activities. Those who need Max for work purposes are advised to keep it on a separate, inexpensive phone with no personal data.

Why Russia Is Not Iran: Three Fundamental Differences

Despite the similarities between the situations in Iran and Russia, there are several fundamental differences.

The Army's Dependence. Telegram has become a critically important tool for coordinating combat operations, collecting donations, and managing units—it is also used, among other things, to procure and control drones. Dmitry Peskov was forced to state that the messaging app would not be blocked in frontline areas—even though this is technically absurd.

Audience size. According to Mediascope, Telegram’s daily audience in Russia reached 74.3 million people in December 2025, while its monthly audience reached 93.6 million. This is not just a messaging app for the opposition—it is the country’s infrastructure.

Self-Sabotage by the Elite. A huge number of officials—from mayors to staff members of the presidential administration—have “gotten hooked” on Telegram and use it for official business, communicating with citizens, and informal conversations. Just as in Iran, the government has found itself held hostage by its own ban.

Political scientist Ekaterina Shulman compares The crackdown on the internet in Russia is comparable to the anti-alcohol campaign of the late Soviet Union: it causes immense irritation among the population because it encroaches on the very “fabric of life”—and ultimately fails for the same reasons.

Other countries: Who else has tried it?

Instances of Telegram being blocked around the world follow a consistent pattern—always the same reasons and always the same results.

In July 2021, Cuba blocked Telegram and other social media platforms to stop the spread of information during anti-government protests. Cuba is one of the few places where the block remains in place to this day.

In March 2024, a Spanish court blocked Telegram for three days in response to complaints from media companies about piracy—but later ruled that the measure was “excessive and disproportionate” and overturned the decision.

The UAE did not block the Telegram messaging app itself, but only its voice call feature—in order to protect local telecommunications operators from competition.

How to Bypass Blocking: From VPNs to Satellites

Over the years, the arsenal of tools for bypassing blocks has become quite diverse.

VPN — the most widely used method. During the January 2018 internet blackout in Iran, Iranians used the Psiphon VPN tool 2.2 million times per hour. Authorities are also trying to block VPNs: in 2025 alone, Roskomnadzor restricted access to nearly 260 VPN services.

Digital Resistance — groups of hackers and programmers who help Telegram rent additional server capacity to bypass blocks. They were the ones who saved the messaging app in Russia in 2018.

Starlink and satellite internet. In Iran, despite the threat of the death penalty for using Starlink, about 100,000 people use it.

Bluetooth Messaging Apps — Apps that send messages from device to device without an internet connection. A radical alternative in the event of a complete “shutdown.”

There is also a paradoxical side effect: The co-founder of the Iranian messaging app Soroush himself acknowledged that the blocking of Telegram prompted Iranians to download VPNs—and this gave them access to many other websites that are banned in the country. The digital society adapts quickly: even the older generation is learning how to use a VPN if they really need it. In Russia, the skills needed to bypass blocks are literally passed down from grandchildren to grandmothers.

Why Do Blocking Measures Not Work?

Telegram was originally designed with the expectation that it would be blocked. The app supports built-in proxies (MTProto) and works easily through any VPN. The more pressure there is, the more people learn about ways to get around it.

There is also a purely economic dimension. In Iran, where millions of people conducted business through these channels, any strict blocking immediately hit people’s wallets—and the authorities’ reputation. The situation is similar in Russia: in 2018, a blanket blocking of IP addresses led to disruptions in supply chains and at supermarkets, but did not shut down the messaging app itself for even a single day.

The main irony of these blocks is that the government itself is often “hooked” on Telegram and uses it for official purposes, coordination, and propaganda. During the protests in Iran, state agencies were at times the only ones publishing information specifically on Telegram, which had been officially blocked. A complete ban would have meant shutting down their own system.

This material was also compiled using data from RBC, Fontanka, CNews, Novaya Gazeta Europe, Mediascope, GAMAAN, re-russia.net, Wikipedia (“Censorship of Telegram,” “Blocking of Telegram in Russia”), and other public sources.