Gap Messenger Iran data sharing allegations have emerged following investigations linking the popular Iranian messaging app to developers operating from southern England, raising concerns among digital rights experts about surveillance, censorship and the handling of user information by platforms tied to Tehran’s domestic internet infrastructure.
Hadi and Mahdi Anjidani, brothers who co-founded TS Information Technology, live in a quiet coastal area of southern England.
Their company, established in 2010, is registered at the address of a tax accountancy firm in Shoreham-by-Sea, West Sussex. UK corporate records identify TS Information Technology as the British branch of Towse’e Saman Information Technology (TSIT), an Iranian software company.
TSIT develops a range of digital products, including computer games, a payment platform designed to operate despite international sanctions, and Gap Messenger, a purple-themed messaging application promoted inside Iran as a domestic alternative to Telegram.
Gap Messenger publicly states that its service is encrypted and that it does not share user data with third parties. However, these claims are disputed by Iranian digital rights organisations.
A report by FilterWatch, a group that monitors internet censorship in Iran, describes Gap Messenger as one of the “main actors and entities that participate in the Iranian government’s internet control and suppression efforts”.
FilterWatch concluded that Gap Messenger appeared, at least once, to have provided user information to Iranian censorship authorities. The finding was based on emails allegedly leaked from Iran’s attorney general’s office in late 2022, according to the report.
Mahdi Anjidani, the chief executive of TSIT, has publicly expressed support for Iran’s ruling establishment in interviews and state-aligned media appearances.
In several broadcasts, he has praised Iran’s leadership for navigating international sanctions and has advocated tougher restrictions on foreign messaging apps and VPN services, which are widely used by Iranians to avoid state surveillance.
On a 2024 Iranian state television broadcast, Anjidani criticised foreign-owned platforms that allow users to bypass monitoring and appeared to suggest ways authorities could intensify crackdowns on digital circumvention tools.
An Iranian researcher, speaking anonymously for fear of reprisals, said: “He was reiterating the threats of the government, which shows how close he is to the state.”
Gap Messenger operates within Iran’s so-called national or domestic internet, a parallel digital ecosystem developed over more than a decade. The system enables authorities to maintain limited internal connectivity while cutting off access to the global internet during periods of political unrest.
Activists say the domestic internet has become a central tool for the survival of Iran’s leadership, particularly during waves of anti-government protests and violent crackdowns that have reportedly resulted in tens of thousands of deaths in recent weeks.
These crackdowns have been accompanied by what experts describe as some of the most precise and severe internet shutdowns on record, designed to isolate the public while allowing government agencies and commercial services to continue operating.
Domestic messaging platforms such as Gap Messenger have been aggressively promoted by Iranian authorities over several years.
According to multiple digital rights experts, their role is not primarily innovation but control. “The overall point is control,” said a researcher at the anti-censorship organisation Outline Foundation.
“Local platforms make it easier to monitor conversations, collect data, and silence dissidents without the legal and technical barriers that exist for global services. This isn’t about boosting local innovation. It’s about consolidating surveillance.”
Gap Messenger has recorded more than one million downloads on Google Play, with an estimated four million additional downloads on Café Bazaar, Iran’s leading domestic app store. The app includes payment services, online calls, games and sticker packs.
Archived websites and public records link the Anjidani brothers to a broader network of companies beyond Gap Messenger.
These include an Iranian social network, an SMS-based advertising service, and MihanPayment, a platform integrated with Iran’s banking system that allows users to conduct international transactions despite sanctions.
In one interview with an Iranian startup accelerator, Mahdi Anjidani appeared to field questions about navigating sanctions, government support for his platforms, and the operation of “satellite offices” in England, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates.
In another interview, he described himself as a “child of the Islamic Revolution” and praised Iran’s elites for “turning threat into an opportunity” by developing domestic software alternatives.
Neither Mahdi nor Hadi Anjidani responded to requests for comment.
When a reporter visited the Brighton address where TS Information Technology was first registered, Hadi Anjidani briefly opened the door before closing it without speaking. A neighbour said the family was reclusive and rarely interacted with others in the area.
At a shared workspace in nearby Hove, a receptionist said Hadi Anjidani had maintained a presence there for more than a decade but visited only by appointment.
Phone calls to the office went unanswered.
Photographs on Mahdi Anjidani’s Facebook page show him alongside prominent figures, including former Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
One image appears to show Ahmadinejad standing next to promotional material for TSIT’s computer game Kings Era.
Other posts highlight meetings with influential regional figures, including relatives of Dubai’s ruling family.
An Iranian independent newspaper has reported that another Anjidani-linked platform, a social network called Virasty, has a government partner in the form of former deputy communications minister Amir Mohammadzadeh Lajevardi.
One Iranian digital rights expert compared access to Iran’s domestic messaging market to oligarchic systems elsewhere. “Anyone who is allowed to operate a messaging app in Iran is operating at the level of oligarchs around Putin,” the researcher said. “This is not an open market.”
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