The Iranian state television issued an appeal, urging citizens to remove the widely used WhatsApp messaging app from their smartphones. The directive was based on allegations, which were presented without supporting evidence, that the Meta-owned messaging app collects user information and sends it to Israel.
Although the Israeli authorities are yet to comment on this, a spokesperson for WhatsApp stated, “We’re concerned these false reports will be an excuse for our services to be blocked at a time when people need them the most.” The company denied the accusations, reiterating that all messages exchanged on the platform are secured with end-to-end encryption, ensuring that only the sender and recipient can access their content.
WhatsApp further asserted that it does not track precise user locations, maintain logs of messaging activity, or provide bulk user information to any government.
The appeal to ban WhatsApp usage comes amidst an intensified conflict between Israel and Iran, which has seen exchanges of missile attacks lately. Iran has previously restricted access to various social media platforms during periods of unrest. For instance, WhatsApp, along with Google Play, was subjected to a ban in 2022 amidst mass protests triggered by the death of a woman in morality police custody, which lifted late last year.
Despite such restrictions, the use of proxies and Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) is prevalent to access banned apps and platforms.
