Iran asks its people to delete WhatsApp from their devices
Iranian state television on Tuesday afternoon urged the country's public to remove the messaging platform WhatsApp from their smartphones, alleging the app — without offering specific evidence — gathered user information to send to Israel.
In a statement, WhatsApp said 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.' WhatsApp uses end-to-end encryption, meaning a service provider in the middle can't read a message.
'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.'
End-to-end encryption means that messages are scrambled so that only the sender and recipient can see them. If anyone else intercepts the message, all they will see is a garble that can't be unscrambled without the key.
WhatsApp is owned by Meta Platforms, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram.
Iran has blocked access to various social media platforms over the years but many people in the country use proxies and virtual private networks, or VPNs, to access them. It banned WhatsApp and Google Play in 2022 during mass protests against the government over the death of a woman held by the country's morality police. That ban was lifted late last year.
WhatsApp had been one of Iran's most popular messaging apps besides Instagram and Telegram.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Daily Mail
43 minutes ago
- Daily Mail
US poised to join Iran war: America amasses armada of warships and fleets of fighter jets in the Middle East as Trump warns Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei 'we know where you're hiding'
Donald Trump was last night poised to join Israel 's attacks on Iran as he demanded Tehran's 'unconditional surrender'. The US President also boasted that his country could assassinate Ayatollah Khamenei – Iran's Supreme Leader – but the 'easy target' was safe 'for now'. America is assembling an armada of warships and fleets of fighter jets in the region ahead of possible military action. And US strikes on targets inside Iran, including nuclear facilities, were 'on the table' during a meeting of his National Security Council in the White House Situation Room last night. At least 224 people have been killed in Iran since Israel began its bombing campaign last week in an attempt to stop the regime from producing a nuclear weapon. Tehran appeared defenceless last night with Israeli jets able to cruise through its airspace without fear of being shot down. Israel also broadened the nature of its strikes to include cyberwarfare, with 'massive' attacks on Iran's internet, communication networks and banks. In a series of social media posts, Mr Trump said 'we' have aerial supremacy and 'we' know where the Supreme Leader is, remarks that suggested Israel and the US were acting in unison. Last night, international leaders confirmed the US was close to a decision on active involvement. German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said a move could be imminent. Mr Trump abruptly left the G7 summit in Canada on Monday night. He told reporters on board Air Force One he was looking for 'a complete give-up' by Iran, adding he was 'not much in a mood to negotiate' and was working on something 'bigger than a ceasefire'. Meanwhile, Yechiel Leiter, the Israeli ambassador to the US, said 'this is the war to end wars'. 'This is the war to engender peace in the Middle East,' he added. Harking back to the audacious bombs-in-pagers plot against Hezbollah last year, Mr Leiter said: 'We've pulled off a number of surprises. When the dust settles, you're going to see some surprises on Thursday night and Friday, that will make the beeper operation almost seem simple.' Further explosions were heard across Tehran last night as the world held its breath over possible US participation. Highways out of the Iranian capital were jammed, but quite where millions of residents were supposed to go to following President Trump's plea for them to evacuate remained unclear. The US already has a Carrier Strike Group in the eastern Mediterranean, including an aircraft carrier, the USS Carl Vinson, with nine squadrons of fighter jets, as well as frigates and destroyers. A second Carrier Strike Group, including the carrier USS Nimitz, is sailing to the region from the Pacific. US bases across the Middle East were on high alert last night. Though any involvement of US ground troops was considered unlikely last night, there are 46,000 personnel stationed in the vicinity of Iran who could assist with evacuations of US citizens. Mr Trump had previously ruled out any US involvement unless Iran deliberately targeted American assets or individuals. But the bar appears to have been lowered. He posted on social media: 'We now have complete and total control of the skies over Iran. 'Iran had good sky trackers and other defensive equipment, and plenty of it, but it doesn't compare to American-made, conceived and manufactured stuff.' He added: 'We know exactly where the so-called Supreme Leader [Ayatollah Khamenei] is hiding. He is an easy target, but is safe there. We are not going to take him out (kill!), at least not for now. But we don't want missiles shot at civilians, or American soldiers. Our patience is wearing thin. Thank you for your attention to this matter.' In another post, in capital letters, he demanded: 'UNCONDITIONAL SURRENDER'. Last night, President Trump and Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu were understood to be speaking by telephone about the state of the conflict. Israel has decimated Iran's defences in five days, opening up further strikes on the country's nuclear enrichment facilities and ballistic missile sites at will. But Israel's formidable arsenal does not extend to the American GBU-57 bunker-buster bombs capable of striking deep underground and so has been unable to penetrate the Fordow nuclear enrichment site, buried deep in a mountain south of Tehran. The beating of war drums last night came after Sir Keir Starmer had tried to play down indications that the US was poised to launch military action. When the Prime Minister was asked whether the conflict could spiral out of control should the US get involved, he told reporters in Canada: 'I don't think anything that the President said either here or elsewhere suggests that. The wording of the G7 statement is very clear about de-escalation and de-escalation across the region. 'That statement speaks for itself in terms of the shared position of everybody who was here at the G7 [including President Trump] and that was a statement that was agreed.' Last night, however, senior US diplomatic and political figures appeared to be urging the President to seize an opportunity to eliminate Iran's threat to Israel. President Trump posted on social media a text he received from the US ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee, who is also a pastor. Mr Huckabee told Mr Trump that God had saved him from assassination during the presidential campaign so he could become 'the most consequential president in a century – maybe ever'. Mr Huckabee likened the stakes in the Middle East to the Second World War and the decision faced by the US following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbour. But others in the Make America Great Movement were positioning against involvement in another 'forever war'. Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene and former Fox News host Tucker Carlson have both called out 'warmongers', with Ms Taylor Greene tweeting: 'Foreign wars/intervention/regime change put America last, kill innocent people, are making us broke, and will ultimately lead to our destruction.' Even without a US intervention, Israel will continue with its ambitions in the conflict. Foreign affairs minister Gideon Sa'ar said Israel's goals were to severely damage the nuclear programme, the ballistic missile programme and to 'severely damage Iran's plans to eliminate the state of Israel'. Reports emerged last night suggesting the timing of Israel's attacks may not have been based on Iran posing an imminent threat. US intelligence assessments said Iran was not actively pursuing a nuclear weapon and it was 'up to three years away' from being able to produce and deliver a functioning warhead.
Reuters
an hour ago
- Reuters
Trump will extend TikTok sale deadline for third time, White House says
WASHINGTON, June 17 (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump will extend a June 19 deadline for China-based ByteDance to divest the U.S. assets of short video app TikTok by 90 days despite a law that had mandated a sale or a shutdown absent significant progress, the White House said on Tuesday. Trump has already twice granted a reprieve from enforcement of a congressionally mandated ban on TikTok that was supposed to take effect in January. "President Trump will sign an additional executive order this week to keep TikTok up and running," White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said.
Daily Mail
an hour ago
- Daily Mail
Australian gay rights organisation defends Iran even though the country's regime executes homosexuals
An Australian gay rights group has endorsed Iran 's military campaign against Israel - even though the fundamentalist Muslim theocracy executes homosexual men. LGBTI Rights Australia divided opinion on Facebook with a post which said: 'Iran has a right to defend itself.' The group - billing itself as 'Australia's largest online community advocating and campaigning for LGBTI rights' - has a series of social media posts condemning Israel, one of the few nations in the Middle East that holds gay pride rallies. The latest post was made on Monday afternoon, three days after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu authorised a bombing campaign on Iran's nuclear facilities that has so far killed 224 people, including 14 nuclear scientists. Iran responded by firing rockets to Israel, killing 24 people, after Netanyahu accused the Muslim theocracy of having enough enriched uranium to develop a nuclear bomb to eradicate Israel, the world's only Jewish state. Amnesty International estimates more than 5,000 gay men and lesbians have been executed since the Ayatollah came to power in 1979. Same-sex attracted men in Iran are also pressured to undergo gender reassignment surgery even if they don't suffer from gender dysphoria. Women are also imprisoned and tortured in Iran for refusing to wear a hijab in public. A Kurdish-Iranian woman Mahsa Amini died in custody in 2022 after being detained by the morality police for refusing for not wearing her headscarf properly. Iran, led by Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, has also been known to fund terrorist groups including Hamas in Gaza, Hezbollah in Lebanon and the Houthis in Yemen. LGBTI Rights Australia is far from the only gay rights group endorsing Israel's enemies, with the University of Sydney home to a 'Queers for Palestine' group despite Hamas torturing gay men. Many Aussies unleashed about the LGBTI Rights Group supporting Iran. 'The Islamic Republic does not represent the Iranian people and have been brutally suppressing them and the LGTBQI+ community for decades. The women of Iran have been begging for your attention'. 'I am horrified by the war, but defending the Islamic Republic and their incredible cruelty and devastation across the region isn't going to help,' she said. Another said: 'A huge number of Iranian's are very supportive of a West/Israeli action to overthrow the current regime. They want help getting out from under the rule of oppressive religious extremists that currently hold all the power.' 'The current Iranian regime is no friend of the LGBTI cause, let alone women's rights and patriarchy. 'You don't have to love Israeli policy to admit this: if you're queer, Iran is a regime that wants you erased. Israel is not.'
