Telegram Runs Offensive Ads Targeting Iranian Officials – WANA News Agency

WANA (Oct 30) – Telegram displays advertisements on some Iranian channels featuring offensive caricatures of Iran’s senior officials, including the country’s Supreme Leader. The content appears alongside enticing economic offers and reaches users through the messaging platform’s official advertising system. Channel administrators do not select these advertisements and cannot directly remove them. Meanwhile, Telegram has established specific rules for publishing ads and operates the system through which this content reaches audiences. This situation raises questions about how Telegram enforces its advertising rules, the criteria it uses to approve ads, and the company’s responsibility for content distributed through its official system. The display of political advertisements on Persian-language Telegram channels has been raised as an issue before. During the January protests, advertisements appeared on some Iranian channels calling for street gatherings and unrest and featuring videos of the protests. In response, an Iranian media outlet stated that messages displayed in Telegram’s sponsored advertising section had been published without its involvement or endorsement. The outlet emphasized that the advertisements’ content contradicted its policies. WANA (Jan 01) – During the recent days’ gatherings in Iran, Persian-speaking Telegram users have encountered a strange phenomenon: the widespread display of advertisements in official and news channels whose content directly calls for unrest, street mobilization, and the dissemination of edited clips from protests. This development reveals complex layers of a media war.   […] This shows that the appearance of an advertisement alongside content on a news channel does not necessarily mean that the channel’s administrators selected or endorsed it. At the same time, the distribution of these advertisements through Telegram’s official system raises questions about how the content is reviewed and approved and the platform’s responsibility for the ads it publishes. Regarding offensive advertisements targeting Iranian officials, the main question is how Telegram reviews and approves these ads and what action it takes when it receives reports about content that violates its rules. The company should provide a clear explanation of its advertising review criteria, how it handles user reports, and the measures it takes to prevent such content from being published repeatedly. Without transparent information about the procedures for reviewing and removing advertisements, it will be difficult to assess Telegram’s performance and effectively pursue potential violations. Providing Iranian users with an effective mechanism for reporting content that violates the rules is also part of the issue. According to Telegram’s official advertising guidelines, Section 5.2 prohibits advertisements containing hate speech, intolerance, harassment, discrimination, violence, or abuse. Section 5.4 also restricts misleading advertisements and deceptive offers. WANA (Nov 01) – Iran has set specific conditions for lifting the ban on Telegram, the popular messaging platform blocked in 2018 over national security and legal concerns.   According to reports, Iran’s Ministry of Information and Communications Technology has begun talks with Telegram under a resolution by the Supreme Council of Cyberspace.   The […] Section 5.5 of the guidelines prohibits political advertisements supporting or opposing politicians, political parties, or political movements. The use of political disputes to incite unrest is also addressed in this section. Therefore, the political advertisements and deceptive economic offers observed on Iranian channels conflict with Telegram’s stated restrictions. The offensive caricatures must also be assessed under the relevant provisions concerning political advertising and the prohibitions on harassment and discrimination. Telegram cannot establish rules for its advertising system while leaving content distributed through that same system without a clear explanation. The credibility of these rules depends on their enforcement, not merely their publication on the company’s website. Telegram launched its official advertising system to display ads on eligible public channels. According to information provided by the official system, a portion of advertising revenue is allocated to eligible channel owners. However, the appearance of an advertisement on a particular channel does not, by itself, indicate that the channel’s administrator played a role in selecting or publishing the ad or endorsed its content. Determining each party’s role requires distinguishing between channel administration and the management of Telegram’s advertising system. Telegram’s documentation also provides for reporting certain sponsored messages. However, the existence of such a mechanism alone does not establish how reports are reviewed or what outcomes they produce. Under these circumstances, transparency regarding ad approval criteria, the process for reviewing reports, and corrective measures is important for assessing the performance of Telegram’s advertising system.Telegram has faced legal and regulatory scrutiny in some countries over how it fulfills its obligations. In Russia, a court in Moscow fined Telegram a total of 10.8 million rubles in two cases on February 11, 2026, related to the platform’s failure to remove prohibited content. In the UK, the country’s communications regulator launched an investigation on April 21, 2026, into Telegram’s potential failure to meet its legal obligations concerning child sexual abuse material. If a violation is established, the regulator can impose fines. These cases show that Telegram’s conduct has been subject to formal scrutiny in some countries through mechanisms that allow authorities to demand explanations and pursue legal action. The display of offensive advertisements targeting Iran’s senior officials through Telegram’s official advertising system, alongside political advertisements and deceptive economic offers, raises serious questions about the enforcement of the company’s own rules. Telegram should provide a clear explanation of how these advertisements are distributed and what measures it is taking to prevent them from appearing again.WANA News Agency West Asia News Agency strives to provide foreign audiences with news from Iran with a novel view and narrative. As a service provider with decades of experience, our foremost mission is to present the world-class services to foreign media and press.Enter your email to receive the latest newsWANA . ALL RIGHTS RESERVED 2023source