Iran tells citizens to delete WhatsApp from phones as Israel conflict escalates

WhatsApp has denied the claim, adding Iran is using it as “an excuse for our services to be blocked”

(Image: Stockcam via Getty Images )

Iran’s government has called upon its citizens to delete WhatsApp from their phones, claiming the messaging app is gathering intel for Israel.

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The unsubstantiated claim was made by the country’s state broadcaster on Tuesday (June 17), alleging the app, owned by Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta, was giving Israeli intelligence users’ last known location.

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This follows the sixth day of continued aerial warfare between Israel and Iran since the former launched a pre-emptive attack, contending Iran was close to building a nuclear weapon.

Iran maintains its nuclear weapons program is solely focused on civilian use only and that it is not attempting to build nuclear weapons.

Read More: Russia warns Donald Trump not to ‘destabilize situation’ between Israel and Iran

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“WhatsApp and Instagram are collecting information about individuals and are providing the Zionist enemy with their last known location and communications, tagged with the names of individuals,” the state television network said, referring to Israel.

No evidence has been put forward to back the assertions, which Whatsapp denies, adding 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 messages are scrambled so that only the sender and recipient can see them.

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More than 600 people, including civilians, are believed to have been killed in the conflict so far. (Image: AP )

“All of the messages you send to family and friends on WhatsApp are end-to-end encrypted,” the messaging service added.

“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.

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

Internet and communication services across Iran have experienced severe disruptions, according to the nation’s officials and residents, some of which claim the government is restricting access itself to limit the spread of information about strikes and for fear of Israeli cyberattacks.

Whatsapp, along with Facebook and Instagram, fall under the US-based Meta umbrella and was previously banned in Iran, in 2022, during mass protests against the government following the death of a woman held by the country’s morality police.

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President Donald Trump has called for the “unconditional surrender” of Iran, hinting at potential US involvement in the current conflict, adding both the U.S. Air Force and Israeli forces have “complete and total control of the skies over Iran.”

The comments, made via Trump’s Truth Social platform, followed the deployment of dozens of refueling tankers across the North Atlantic to Europe.

Some of the same tankers, primarily KC-135s and KC-46s, were spotted being escorted by F-35 fighter jets above the UK, believed to be headed for the Middle East.

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A second nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, the USS Nimitz, was also deployed to the region with Trump claiming to want “options” in the area, should tensions continue to boil over.

Trump to extend TikTok sale deadline for third time, White House says

WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump will extend a June 19 deadline for China-based ByteDance to divest the US assets of short video app TikTok for 90 days despite a law that mandated a sale or shutdown absent significant progress, the White House said on Tuesday.

Trump had 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 Tuesday.

That would extend the deadline to mid-September.

“President Trump does not want TikTok to go dark,” she added, saying the administration will spend the next three months making sure the sale closes so that Americans can keep using TikTok with the assurance that their data is safe and secure.

Trump said in May he would extend the June 19 deadline after the app helped him with young voters in the 2024 election.

Earlier on Tuesday, he had told reporters on Air Force One he expected to again extend the deadline.

“Probably, yeah,” Trump said when asked about extending the deadline. “Probably have to get China approval but I think we’ll get it. I think President Xi will ultimately approve it.”

The law required TikTok to stop operating by January 19 unless ByteDance had completed divesting the app’s US assets or demonstrated significant progress toward a sale.

Trump began his second term as president on January 20 and opted not to enforce it. He first extended the deadline to early April, and then again last month to June 19.

In March, Trump said he would be willing to reduce tariffs on China to get a deal done with TikTok’s Chinese parent ByteDance to sell the short video app used by 170 million Americans.

A deal had been in the works this spring that would spin off TikTok’s US operations into a new US-based firm and majority-owned and operated by US investors, but it was put on hold after China indicated it would not approve it following Trump’s announcements of steep tariffs on Chinese goods.

Democratic senators argue that Trump has no legal authority to extend the deadline, and suggest that the deal under consideration would not meet legal requirements.

WASHINGTON: WhatsApp said it was “concerned” that its services would be blocked in Iran after a state broadcaster urged the public to delete the messaging app, saying it was sharing data with arch-rival Israel.

State television IRIB appealed to Iranians on Tuesday to delete WhatsApp from their phones, alleging that the app collected users’ personal data and “last known locations and communications,” and shared them with Israel.

On Wednesday, Israel and Iran exchanged fire for the sixth straight day, with Israel saying it struck a nuclear site near Tehran.

A WhatsApp spokesperson dismissed the IRIB claims, saying all messages sent on the app were “end-to-end encrypted,” with only the sender and recipient able to access them.

“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 spokesperson told AFP.

“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,” they said.

WhatsApp also does not “provide bulk information to any government.”

Israel launched a massive bombing campaign against Iran on Friday that has hit nuclear and military facilities, as well as residential areas.

Iran has responded by launching missiles and drones, and early Wednesday said it had fired hypersonic missiles at Israel.

Tehran announced Friday that it was placing temporary restrictions on the Internet for the duration of the conflict.

Numerous sites and apps have since been at least partially inaccessible.

The authorities appealed to the public on Tuesday to “minimize their use of equipment connected to the Internet and to take appropriate precautions” online.

For their own safety, civil servants and their security teams have been banned from using any connected devices, including smartphones, watches and laptops during the Israeli air offensive.

In the wake of nationwide protests triggered by the 2022 death in custody of Mahsa Amini, Iranian authorities had blocked several apps and online services, including WhatsApp.

On Tuesday afternoon, Iranian state television called on the public to delete WhatsApp from their smartphones, claiming—without providing evidence—that the messaging platform was collecting user data to share with Israel.

WhatsApp responded with concern, stating that the accusations were false and potentially a pretext for authorities to block the app again at a time when people rely on it most. The platform emphasized its use of end-to-end encryption, which prevents any third party, including service providers, from accessing message content.

“We do not track users’ precise locations, we don’t maintain logs of who is messaging whom, and we do not monitor personal messages,” WhatsApp said. “We also do not provide bulk user information to any government.”

End-to-end encryption scrambles messages so that only the sender and recipient can read them. Anyone intercepting the communication would see unintelligible data without the decryption key.

However, Gregory Falco, a cybersecurity expert and assistant professor at Cornell University, pointed out that while message content is encrypted, WhatsApp metadata—such as usage patterns—is not, which has long raised concerns among privacy advocates.

Falco also highlighted the issue of data sovereignty, noting that WhatsApp data from users in one country may be stored elsewhere. For example, it is likely that Iranian user data is not stored on servers inside Iran. He argued that countries should store and process their data domestically using their own systems, as trust in the global data infrastructure is increasingly eroding.

WhatsApp is owned by Meta Platforms, which also operates Facebook and Instagram. Iran has previously restricted access to several social media platforms. In 2022, during widespread anti-government protests following the death of a woman in the custody of the morality police, the country blocked WhatsApp and Google Play. These restrictions were lifted late last year.

Despite such bans, many Iranians continue to use virtual private networks (VPNs) and proxy services to access blocked platforms. WhatsApp had remained one of the most widely used messaging apps in Iran alongside Instagram and Telegram.

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Amid escalating Israel-Iran conflict , the Iranian state television on Tuesday afternoon urged the country’s public to remove the messaging platform WhatsApp from their smartphones, reported AP.

Iranians have been asked to remove WhatsApp from their devices, alleging the app “without offering specific evidence” gathered user information to send to Israel . WhatsApp is owned by Meta Platforms, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram.

Notably, Iran has already blocked access to various social media platforms over the year and WhatsApp has been one of Iran’s most popular messaging apps besides Instagram and Telegram.

However, despite the ban, people in Iran often use proxies and virtual private networks, or VPNs, to access messaging apps.

Iran had 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.

What WhatsApp Said?

Over Iran asking its citizens to delete WhatsApp from their smartphones, WhatsApp, in a statement, said that 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,” the company said. WhatsApp uses end-to-end encryption, meaning a service provider in the middle can’t read a message, it added.

“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. We do not provide bulk information to any government,” the statement read.

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.

Israel-Iran Conflict Escalates

The Israel-Iran conflict entered its 6th day on Wednesday. Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei declared, “the battle begins”. Labelling Israel a “terrorist Zionist regime,” Khamenei wrote, “the battle begins.” In another post, he added, “We must give a strong response to the terrorist Zionist regime. We will show the Zionists no mercy.”

The posts followed a warning by former US President Donald Trump , who had earlier demanded Iran’s “UNCONDITIONAL SURRENDER!” In a series of messages on Truth Social, Trump claimed that the US had pinpointed Khamenei’s location, writing, “We know exactly where the so-called ‘Supreme Leader’ 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.”

(With inputs from AP)