14 DAY TRIAL // Sad news for WhatsApp users in Iran, as the government of the country has announced that it has banned the instant messaging service for unbelievable reasons.
According to Fox News, Abdolsamad Khorramabadi, head of the country's Committee on Internet Crimes, claims that the ban on WhastApp has been imposed due to the service’s acquisition by Facebook two months ago.
He stated bluntly that “the reason for this is the assumption of WhatsApp by the Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, who is an American Zionist.”
This means that since last weekend, those WhatsApp Messenger services on Iranian territory are not available anymore. Iranians usually take advantage of WhatsApp to communicate with friends and families abroad, but it looks like the local regime has decided to take away this opportunity.
But there is more bad news, as Khorramabadi said that other messaging services might be banned in the more or less distant future. While he has not mentioned any names yet, Facebook, Instagram, Tango and Viber could be among the first social services to get banned next in Iran.
According to a local blogger who asked to remain anonymous, “the Revolutionary Guard sees these social sites as a major threat because there’s an appeal for young people and the government worries about the exchange of information.”
“(Supreme Leader) Khamenei and his cronies caught on to the power and potential of these sites after the (Green Revolution) uprisings,” he added.
While Facebook’s officials did not offer any comments on the matter, it’s clear that the Iranian government is now looking for reasons to ban as many social media services as possible.
WhatsApp’s acquisition by Facebook happened about two months ago, but the Iranian regime has decided to ban the service only recently, which, obviously, raises some questions on the real reason of the ban.
Iranians are already used to accessing banned websites using proxies since the Iranian Revolutionary Guard began watching Internet activity in order to counter so-called “Internet crimes.”
It appears that censorship has been strengthened once more in Iran, so Iranians will now probably have to look for other ways to easily communicate with their friends and families in the country or abroad.
WhatsApp is the second messaging service banned in Iran, after WeChat shared the same faith last year. Hopefully, the bans will stop here, though we have the feeling that things are only going to get worse. Stay tuned for more updates on the situation.