Iran urges public to delete WhatsApp; claims app sends data to Israel

Iranian state television on Tuesday urged its citizens to remove WhatsApp, alleging that the messaging app collects user data and shares it with Israel, amid the ongoing conflict, without providing any specific evidence.

In response, WhatsApp strongly denied the accusations, saying, “We are concerned these false reports will be an excuse for our services to be blocked at a time when people need them the most.”

The Meta-owned app reiterated that it uses end-to-end encryption and does not share user data. “We do not track your precise location, we don’t keep logs of who everyone is messaging and we do not track the personal messages people are sending one another,” the company further clarified. 

“We do not provide bulk information to any government,” it added.

End-to-end encryption ensures that messages remain unreadable to anyone except the sender and intended recipient.

Any intercepted messages appear as unintelligible text that cannot be decoded without the proper key. Meta Platforms, which also owns Facebook and Instagram, is WhatsApp’s parent company.

Throughout recent years, Iran has restricted access to various social media platforms, though many residents circumvent these restrictions using proxies and VPNs.

The government blocked WhatsApp and Google Play in 2022 during widespread demonstrations following the death of a woman in morality police custody. 

These restrictions were lifted in late 2023.WhatsApp remains one of Iran’s most widely used messaging applications, alongside Instagram and Telegram.

Source: The Times of India 
--Agencies