Meta ‘concerned’ Iran could ban WhatsApp after snooping claims
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Diverging Reports Breakdown
Meta ‘concerned’ Iran could ban WhatsApp after snooping claims
US tech giant Meta has expressed concern that Iran may block WhatsApp after state media claimed the messaging service is being used for snooping by Israel. “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,” Meta said. Iran added WhatsApp and Instagram to its list of prohibited apps in September 2022 amid protests over the death of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old Iranian Kurd, in custody.
“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,” Meta, the parent company of Facebook, WhatsApp and Instagram, said in a statement on Tuesday.
“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.”
Meta added that it does not track users’ precise location or maintain logs of who is messaging whom.
“We do not provide bulk information to any government,” the California-based tech firm said.
“For over a decade, Meta has provided consistent transparency reports that include the limited circumstances when WhatsApp information has been requested.”
Meta’s statement came after the Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA) urged citizens to deactivate or delete their WhatsApp accounts because the “Zionist regime is using citizens’ information to harm us”.
“This is extremely important because they are using the information on your phone, your location and the content you share, which is likely private but still accessible,” an IRNA host said, according to a subtitled clip shared by Iraqi media outlet Rudaw.
“Many of us have friends and relatives living nearby, and some of them could be nuclear scientists or beloved figures, don’t forget.”
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End-to-end encryption makes it technically impossible for third parties, including tech companies, to access the contents of messages while they are en route from a sender to a recipient.
However, Meta and other tech platforms do collect so-called metadata, such as contacts and device information, which they can share with authorities when requested.
Iran added WhatsApp and Instagram to its list of prohibited apps in September 2022 amid protests over the death of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old Iranian Kurd, in custody.
Iranian authorities voted to lift the ban two months later as part of reforms to enhance internet freedom promised by President Masoud Pezeshkian.
Iran asks people to delete WhatsApp as it accuses app of spying for Israel; Meta calls claim baseless
Iranian state television has urged citizens to delete WhatsApp. It accused the messaging app of collecting user data and sharing it with Israel. The company swiftly denied the allegations. It reaffirmed that WhatsApp uses end-to-end encryption and does not track user locations, monitor messages, or share bulk information with any government. The statement comes amid heightened regional tensions and marks the latest chapter in Iran’s uneasy relationship with foreign tech platforms.
Iranian state television has urged citizens to delete WhatsApp, accusing the messaging app of collecting user data and sharing it with Israel. The statement comes amid heightened regional tensions and marks the latest chapter in Iran’s uneasy relationship with foreign tech platforms.
WhatsApp, owned by Meta Platforms, swiftly denied the allegations. “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 company said in a statement. It reaffirmed that WhatsApp uses end-to-end encryption and does not track user locations, monitor messages, or share bulk information with any government.
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“We don’t keep logs of who’s messaging whom, and we don’t provide bulk data to any government,” the company added. End-to-end encryption, WhatsApp explained, ensures that only the sender and recipient can read messages — any intercepted data appears as scrambled text, unreadable without a unique decryption key.
This isn’t the first time Iran has targeted foreign messaging platforms. During the nationwide protests in 2022 following the death of Mahsa Amini in morality police custody, the Iranian government blocked WhatsApp and the Google Play Store. Though restrictions were eased in late 2023, access to global platforms like Instagram, WhatsApp, and Telegram remains volatile and often reliant on VPNs or proxies.
Despite Iran’s frequent clampdowns on digital communication, WhatsApp remains one of the country’s most-used messaging apps. Tehran’s latest warning could foreshadow renewed censorship efforts — but for now, many Iranians continue to rely on the platform for daily communication and uncensored news.
Fact check: Did UnitedHealthcare CEO murder suspect post viral Substack?
Luigi Mangione is charged with murder in UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson’s December 4 shooting death. Mangione left a handwritten document explaining his motivation, New York City police officials said. Some X users were sharing what they said was a manifesto Mangione published on Substack, a subscription-based platform for online content creators. Substack removed the post “for violating Substack’s Content Guidelines, which prohibit impersonation’, a company spokesperson told PolitiFact in an emailed statement. We rate claims that Mangione wrote the Substack article as False.
Luigi Mangione, the suspect charged with murder in UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson’s December 4 shooting death, left a handwritten document explaining his motivation, New York City police officials said.
Police had not released the document to the public as of December 10. But some X users were sharing what they said was a manifesto Mangione published on Substack, a subscription-based platform for online content creators.
“This is allegedly Luigi’s manifesto,” a December 9 X post with more than five million views said. The post shared four screenshots of text from a Substack post with the headline “The Allopathic Complex and Its Consequences” and the subhead “Luigi Mangione’s last words”.
The Substack article was dated December 9, the day Mangione was arrested at an Altoona, Pennsylvania, McDonald’s. “The second amendment means I am my own chief executive and commander in chief of my own military,” it said. “I authorise my own act of self-defence in response to a hostile entity making war on me and my family.”
We found other social media posts sharing the same images or language as the blog post and saying Mangione had written them.
But he did not write them. Substack removed the post “for violating Substack’s Content Guidelines, which prohibit impersonation”, a company spokesperson told PolitiFact in an emailed statement.
New York City Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch said on December 9 that police had found a handwritten document when they arrested Mangione “that speaks to both his motivation and mindset”. As of December 10, authorities had not offered more information about its contents.
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The New York Times reported on the three-page document, citing an internal police report it obtained. Mangione described the act as a “symbolic takedown” of the healthcare industry, citing “alleged corruption and ‘power games’”.
None of that language appeared in the Substack post being shared online as Mangione’s manifesto.
PolitiFact reviewed reports about the document by The New York Times, CNN, New York Post or ABC News, all outlets that said they had reviewed the message or had it described to them by law enforcement sources. None of the reports included mention of the Second Amendment. PolitiFact has not obtained a copy.
We rate claims that Mangione wrote the Substack article as False.