In a moment of strong military tension between Iran and Israel, the Iranian government invited its citizens to Delete the WhatsApp messaging app from your devices. The message was released by State television (IRIB – Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting), who motivated the invitation by talking about security and confidentiality concerns. In particular, Tehran claims that WhatsApp may collect and transmit sensitive users of users to Israeleven if there have been no evidence in support of this accusation. The measure arrives in a context in which the Internet is subject to strong restrictions in the country, with almost total digital blackouts reported by international organizations that monitor the web traffic. The app, owned by the American Meta, replied by stating that the messages are protected by end-to-end encryption and that no data for surveillance are collected.
It is not the first time that Iran requires limits to the use of WhatsApp, such as already happened during the protests of 2022. In the background there are also wider fears regarding the sovereignty of data and the security of metadata, i.e. collateral information to a communication (such as timetables, duration of the chats, interlocutors), which are not figures and can be subject to surveillance. We see more closely what is happening and why the Iranian government is adopting this clear line against one of the most popular apps in the world.
Iran invited the population to delete WhatsApp
The June 18th last, the Iranian state television launched an explicit message: «Uninstall WhatsApp!». The official motivation concerns the fear that the application can collect personal information from Iranian users to share them with entities related to Israeljust when the tensions between the two countries have reached worrying levels.
The government’s request is not limited to WhatsApp, but also extends to other “position -based apps», That is, those applications that collect GPS data to work. Despite the severity of the accusations, the television broadcast did not present concrete tests that demonstrate an improper use of data by the app. To complicate the picture, in the same hours in Iran there was a Almost total internet blackoutaccording to what reported by Netblocksinternational organization that monitors access to the network and digital freedom in the world. This type of interruption, already adopted in the past, is often used in Iran for limit the dissemination of information in the most critical moments from a social or political point of view.
Whatsapp’s answer
Regarding the affair, the WhatsApp’s response. A company spokesman defined the unfounded accusations and stressed that the app uses a system of end-to-end encryption: means that only sender and recipient can read messages, since they are protected by univocal encryption keys. Even WhatsApp itself, according to what has been declared, cannot access the content of the conversations. In addition, the company assured that it does not trace the exact position of users nor does it retain detailed records of messages. Above all, he denied sharing mass data with any government. This is the declaration of WhatsApp issued to Ap:
WhatsApp is concerned that these false reports can be an excuse to block our services at a time when people need it more. We do not trace your exact position, we do not keep track of the messages received and we do not trace the personal messages that people exchange. We do not provide blocking information to any government.
Iran-Whatsapp precedents
Despite these reassurances, Iran is not new to restrictive measures against western digital platforms. WhatsApp, together with Apps such as Instagram, Telegram and X (the former Twitter), has been blocked or made inaccessible several times. An emblematic case occurred in 2022, on the occasion of the protests that broke out after the Death of Mahsa Aminia young woman arrested by the moral police. On that occasion, access to WhatsApp was temporarily forbidden to hinder the organization of events.
Recent facts that concerned the security of WhatsApp
Returning to the current situation of WhatsApp in Iran, according to some experts, including Gregory Falcocomputer security researcher, It is plausible that the data of Iranian users are not managed within the countrybut from foreign servers. This means that Iran would have no direct control over how this information is treated. Another element to consider is the Management of metadataor those data that describe other data: for example, who communicates with whom, when, for how long and from where. Unlike the content of the messages, these metadata are not protected by end-to-end encryption, and therefore could theoretically be collected by third entities. It is not a marginal detail: the analysis of metadata allows, in some cases, to trace habits, social relationships and even movements.
By widening the zoom on the matter, we cannot fail to remember that WhatsApp has been several times in the sights of surveillance campaigns through spyware. TO January 2025for example, Meta said that a group of WhatsApp users – including our colleague of Fanpage Francesco Cancellato – had been hit by a computer attack attributed to Paragon Solutions, an Israeli company specialized in surveillance software. In a previous case, in 2019society NSO Groupdeveloper of the famous spyware Pegasushad already targeted about 1,400 WhatsApp users. The episode ended in the May 2025 with a sentence imposed on NSO Group, who had to compensate WhatsApp with 167 million dollars.
Iran’s invitation to cancel WhatsApp must therefore be read in the light of several elements: the current military conflict, the control of the characteristic information of regimes such as the one in Iran and, as soon as argued, the real (but not always documented) concerns on digital privacy.
