Iranian authorities are reportedly urging citizens to uninstall Meta’s WhatsApp from their smartphones, amid military tensions with Israel.
The Associated Press reported that on Tuesday afternoon, Iranian state television has urged people to remove WhatsApp from their smartphones, alleging without specific evidence that the messaging app gathered user information to send to Israel.
It should be remembered that it was in December 2024, when Iranian authorities had lifted a ban on WhatsApp and Google Play as a first step to scale back internet restrictions.
WhatsApp ban
It came after Meta had in January 2023 had added proxy support to WhatsApp because “there are many people who continue to be denied the ability to reach their loved ones because of internet shutdowns.”
That 2023 move had allowed the millions of WhatsApp users to keep messaging, even if the Internet was blocked or disrupted by shutdowns by authoritarian regimes around the world.
Meta had made the move in January 2023 after anti-government protests in Iran began in September 2022, when 22 year old Mahsa Amini died whilst in the custody of Iran’s morality police, after she was arrested for “unsuitable attire”.
Eyewitnesses said that Amini had been severely beaten, which Iranian officials denied.
Amini’s death triggered a wave of protests across Iran, with some female demonstrators removing their hijab or publicly cutting their hair as acts of protest.
Many hundreds of Iranian citizens were killed by Iranian security forces during the protests.
The Iranian government responded by restricting access to Meta’s Instagram and WhatsApp, claiming that social media platforms were widely used in the anti-government protests.
Islamic Republic has some of the strictest controls on Internet access in the world, but its blocks on US-based social media such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube are routinely bypassed by tech-savvy Iranians using virtual private networks (VPNs) or proxies.
WhatsApp had been one of Iran’s most popular messaging apps besides Instagram and Telegram.
WhatsApp removal
Now six months after officially lifting its ban on WhatsApp, Iranian state television has urged people to remove WhatsApp from their smartphones.
In a statement, WhatsApp was quoted by AP as saying it was “concerned these false reports will be an excuse for our services to be blocked at a time when people need them the most.”
“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,” it added. “We do not provide bulk information to any government.”
This comes amid heightened tensions and military strikes.
Israel began military operations against Iran on Friday 13 June 2025, when it launched a surprise attack on nuclear infrastructure, scientists and military commanders in the country.
Iranian state media have stated that Israel’s strikes on Tehran have killed at least 224 people.
In return, Tehran’s retaliatory missile strikes against Israeli cities have claimed at least 24 lives.
Meanwhile US President Donald Trump has told the nearly 10 million residents of Tehran, Iran’s capital, to “immediately evacuate Tehran.”