Iran's ministry of education on Sunday (April 15th) banned the use of foreign social media networks in schools, amid a push by Tehran to limit the influence of outside online platforms, AFP reported.
Schools must "only use domestic social networks" for their communication, the ministry said in a statement carried by the the ILNA news agency.
During a wave of protests in dozens of Iranian cities at the start of the year, Iranian authorities temporarily banned Telegram, accusing the app of allowing foreign-based "counter-revolutionary" groups to fuel unrest.
Facebook and Twitter are blocked in Iran.
Since then, authorities have sought to develop Iranian social media networks and limit the reliance on foreign-based platforms, which Tehran accuses of hosting sites deemed hostile to the Islamic Republic.
Several Iranian platforms offering services similar to Telegram have emerged in recent months, like the Soroush network, which already claims to have five million subscribers.
