Telegram co‑founder Pavel Durov says Iran’s attempts to block the app have largely failed, with millions of people continuing to access the service through VPNs and other circumvention tools. He noted that although Tehran banned Telegram years ago, tens of millions of users have kept using it by routing traffic through virtual private networks and similar methods, and that roughly 50 million people in Iran are now joined by over 50 million more users in Russia.
VPNs hide a user’s real IP address by routing web traffic through servers in other countries, letting people bypass national internet restrictions and access blocked services. According to Durov, instead of prompting mass adoption of government surveillance apps, the bans prompted widespread adoption of privacy tools like VPNs.
Supporters of decentralized technologies say that blockchain, cryptocurrencies and end‑to‑end encrypted messaging can blunt or defeat state surveillance and censorship, helping preserve private, secure communications during unrest.
Iran imposed a nationwide internet blackout in January 2026 amid large protests and a broader regional conflict. Despite bans that included some satellite services, people inside the country have sought alternative ways to communicate. One example is BitChat, a messaging app that uses Bluetooth to form a mesh network: nearby devices running the app relay messages to each other, allowing chats to move around conventional internet and satellite blocks.
BitChat and similar mesh tools saw download spikes during political crises elsewhere. The app recorded about 48,000 installs in Nepal the week the government imposed a social media ban in September 2025, a period that overlapped with protests that toppled the government, and comparable increases were reported during unrest in Madagascar.
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