Meta Expresses 'Concern' As Iran State Media Urges Citizens To Delete Apps
After the Iranian government had urged the public to delete WhatsApp, Instagram, and other “location-based applications,” accusing them of being Israel’s “main methods to identify and target individuals,” the US tech giant Meta has expressed concern.
“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.
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The company had stated that all messages sent from the users are “end-to-end encrypted” so that no one will have access to the messages, not even WhatsApp. They further added that Meta does not track users’ precise locations or maintain logs of who is messaging whom.
The messaging app company also clarified that they do not provide bulk information to any government. Moreover, there had been reports that a former US intelligence whistleblower, Edward Snowden, had blasted Meta’s data practices, calling the platform a “surveillance company” profiting from the exploitation of users’ private lives.
An IRNA host on Monday had asked the Iranian citizens to delete the apps “as the information on your phone, your location and the content you share, which is likely private but still accessible.”
Technically, the end-to-end encryption makes it impossible for a third party to access the contents of messages. 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.
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Iran had earlier in September 2022 added WhatsApp and Instagram to the list of prohibited apps amid the protests over the death of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old Iranian Kurd, in custody. The Iranian authorities voted to lift the ban two months later as part of reforms to enhance internet freedom promised by President Masoud Pezeshkian.
