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Iran lifts ban on WhatsApp and Google Play

December 24, 2024

Allowing the use of WhatsApp and Google Play is the "first step in removing internet limitations," according to Iranian officials. The country still enforces draconian internet controls.

https://p.dw.com/p/4oYdB
The logos of Instagram, Facebook and WhatsApp
While the ban on WhatsApp will be removed, Facebook and Instagram remain blocked in Iran.Image: Jens Büttner/dpa/picture alliance

Iranian authorities have lifted a ban on Meta's messaging platform WhatsApp and Google Play app purchasing service as a first step towards scaling back internet restrictions, state media reported.

"A positive majority vote has been reached to lift limitations on access to some popular foreign platforms such as WhatsApp and Google Play," Iran's official news agency IRNA said, referring to a meeting headed by President Masoud Pezeshkian.

The agency also quotes Iran's Minister of Information and Communications Technology Sattar Hashemi as saying the move is "the first step in removing internet limitations."

The country has some of the strictest controls on internet access in the world. These include embargos on US-based social media networks such as Facebook, X and YouTube. Messaging service Telegram was also banned by a court order in April 2018. However, these restrictions are routinely bypassed by tech-savvy Iranians using virtual private networks (VPN). 

Social media platforms were widely used in anti-government protests in Iran. 

In September, the US called on big tech companies to help evade online censorship in countries that heavily censor the internet, including Iran.

ftm/dj (AFP, Reuters)