Tehran, February 25, The Iran Project – Iran's elections of parliament and the Assembly of Expert are to be held on 26 February and prediction indicates massive turnout of voters across the country. An outstanding feature of the upcoming election which makes it totally distinctive from the previous elections is related to the debate of campaign advertising.


A look at the history of elections' campaigning in Iran reveals that the election nominees and factions have traditionally sought ways to immediately talk with the voters, drawing their attentions through presenting their potentialities and plans.

To candidates, delivering speech at mosques and electoral meetings, campaigning through media and meeting with people have been preferable to the ways such as distributing tracts. The preference has its roots in the persuasive power of closer and direct communication.

Social networks initially were introduced in Iran's political scene during the presidential election of 2009 when Facebook and Twitter were immensely used as a medium to deliver tweets and messages.

Given the fact that the illegal use of mentioned social media was hard to control for the government , the networks were blocked ahead and after the 2009 election in Iran to thwart their harmful influence. Moreover, the US Secretary of State's support of Twitter to bolster the flow of tweets that were transmitting among the rule-breakers in Iran added the need to shout down the networks.

Six years after the developments, although Twitter and Facebook are unofficially used even by Iranian state organizations, official barrier still remains in place, preventing candidates to employ them as a way of campaigning.

Mobile media enters the scene

The access to social media was denied due to their incompatibility with Iran's law, but mobile media have been excluded from such prohibition and this has been a reason for their prevalence among Iranians. The costs of short messaging system in Iran while the apps provide free messaging push Iranians to use notably Whatsapp and Telegram as major applications.

Despite the objections of mobile operators in Iran which see the messengers as a threat to their market share, the messaging apps have been widely circulated across Iran. According to the figures, a considerable percentage of Telegram users worldwide are based in Iran. The same also goes for WhatsApp which has recently faced a decline in popularity.

Channels for sharing contents and the capacity to transmit a large body of information are advantages of Telegram which makes it a more applicable medium for candidates. This is why many of candidates, parties and fractions have created their own private channels to talk directly with their potential fans!

The possibility of direct and immediate talks between the nominees and voters, the online meeting held in the super groups with thousands of members whose conclusions are being shared in hundreds of other groups are desirable features for Iranian elections' candidates.

There has been another outcome for increasing virtualization of Iran's election. Political campaigns and meetings of nominees across the streets and public places now have lost their traditional appeal and consequently the political enthusiasm has been transferred to mobile screens.

Filtering and impacts on mobile media

The media and particularly Telegram are partly consistent with Iran's law. Some, however, have discussed the potential filtering of the app during the prohibition day of campeigning ahead of election, as a way to ensure the implementation of a law which bans campaigning 24 hours before the election.

Releasing data about candidates in hours before election when time is tight may reduce a candidate's votes, while not providing him/her a chance to respond properly. The rumor related to other candidate's dissuasion is another potential threat that is a real concern ahead of elections' organizers.

Irrespective of whether the messengers are blocked or not before election, they have already impressed this political incident in Iran through exhausting the energy and appeal of real electoral campaign across the streets and public sphere.

At last, the debate on the extent to which mobile media impacted on Iran's election needs further research and analysis after the election.