Iraq unblocks Telegram after one-week ban over security concerns

Iraq has said it will lift a ban on Telegram starting from Sunday, a week after the government had blocked the instant messaging app citing national security concerns.
The reversal of the ban was announced by the Ministry of Communications after response from the operating company to "requirements" of security authorities, the country's state news agency INA reported.
"[The company] showed its full readiness to communicate with the competent authorities and named official channels for it to communicate with Iraq," the agency quoted the ministry as saying without providing further details.
Iraqi authorities last week blocked the app due to matters of "national security and to protect citizens' personal data," INA reported at the time.
Telegram, which is owned by its founder, Russian-bornd entrepreneur Pavel Durov, is very widespread in Iraq - even in parts of the government. The INA account, for example, has 260,000 subscribers.
In January, the Interior Ministry said some 16 million of Iraq's population of 43.3 million used Telegram.
The app is also used by powerful pro-Iranian militias. In some cases, the names or other sensitive data of security forces, for example, were disseminated via Telegram channels, as was the case after violent riots in Iraq in autumn 2021.
The terrorist militia Islamic State, which once controlled large swathes of Iraq and neighbouring Syria, also uses Telegram.