Several hundred teenagers gathered in Tehran’s Kourosh Mall on Tuesday for what was described as a summer event organized on an instant messaging app. An Iranian channel on Telegram, one of the most popular social media apps in Iran, called on young boys and girls to spontaneously gather in the mall and meet fellow teenagers to celebrate the summer holidays. Eyewitnesses said that over 2,000 minors, most of them younger than 15, showed up there. Police responded by quickly closing the mall. Some of the eyewitnesses claimed they even fired tear gas in order to disperse the young crowd. Photos of the event showing security forces and police cars in front of the shopping mall went viral on Iranian social media. “Do not think for a second that only high school kids can unite and attend a large 2000-person meeting; perhaps we should also do the same and use the hashtag,” tweeted Mahlagha, an Iranian female. “Beyond all the talk about Kourosh meeting, the arrangement of such a large public gathering is just remarkable,” said another user. Iran has frequently tried to block, or at least limit, the use of Telegram in the past. Earlier this year Iranian officials said that Telegram had agreed to Tehran’s request to shut down apps that had “immoral contents contrary to the Islamic Republic’s codes.” But Telegram’s founder Paul Durov denied the claim: “Iranian officials want to use telegram to spy on their citizens. We cannot and will not help them with that,” he said. An estimated 20 million Iranians are Telegram users, according to a poll conducted by the country’s semi-official ISNA news agency. Other social apps - such as Facebook, Twitter and Viber - are blocked in the country with Iranian users having to rely on special software to bypass government filters. This is not the first time Iranian youth use social media to arrange public gatherings. In 2011 hundreds of enthusiasts, male and female, attended a public water pistol fight organized on Facebook.
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