WhatsApp said on Wednesday it is “concerned” the messaging platform will be blocked in Iran after the country’s state television urged users to remove the app.
Iranian state television released reports Tuesday alleging WhatsApp was being used to gather and send information to Israel amid its ongoing conflict with Iran, the Associated Press reported.
“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,” a WhatsApp spokesperson said in a statement to The Hill.
“All of the messages you send to family and friends on WhatsApp are end-to-end encrypted meaning no-one except the sender and recipient has access to those messages, not even WhatsApp,” the spokesperson continued.
End-to-end encryption prevents third parties from being able to decipher messages between a sender and recipient.
WhatsApp, which is one of Iran’s most popular messaging apps, does not keep track of users’ “precise location” or personal messages and does not keep logs of who users are messaging, the spokesperson added.
“We do not provide bulk information to any government. For over a decade, Meta has provided consistent transparency reports that include the limited circumstances when WhatsApp information has been requested,” the spokesperson added.
Various social media platforms have been blocked in Iran in recent years, with some using proxies or virtual private networks as a workaround to access them, according to the AP.
Iran banned WhatsApp and Google Play in 2022 amid mass protests of the government, but the ban was lifted late last year.
The Associated Press contributed reporting.