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Iran and the United States may not agree on many (and can Technically being at war with each other At the moment) but there is, apparently, one thing that civil servants of the two countries seem to be on the same wavelength: WhatsApp, the omnipresent cat application of Meta, is a danger of data and not being reliable.
From Facebook bought WhatsApp For $ 19 billion in 2014, Mark Zuckberg’s company has tried to position the application as the first life -based communication tool in the world. “End -to -end encryption maintains your personal messages and calls between you and the person with whom you communicate”, WhatsApp said. “No one outside the cat, not even WhatsApp, can read, listen to them or share them.” At the same time, Zuckerberg sought to make it one of the most used applications on the planet. His efforts have been widely successful: WhatsApp is used around the world (with 3 billion monthly users), including largely Europe,, Latin AmericaAnd The Middle East.
However, activists and researchers have continuously raised questions about actual application confidentiality – questions that have been granted under the spotlight this week with the arrival of two new controversies involving the application.
Last week, Iranian state television warned a warning to the country’s citizens, asking them to withdraw WhatsApp from their phones and devices and complaints – without proof – that the application information could be shared with Israel. The Associated Press originally reported On the claims of the Iranian government. Such Iran warnings on Israeli influence on Western companies would not be so unusual At first glance, but government offices in the United States also seem to agree that there is a problem with the application.
Monday, Axios reported that The administrative director of the American house, who provides support for legislators and their staff, has published advice that prohibits the use of WhatsApp on government phones. The report quotes an email that has been broadcast among the house staff, who read as follows: “Home staff are not allowed to download or keep the WhatsApp application on any home device, including mobile, desktop or web browser versions.” The email continued: “If you have a WhatsApp application on your device managed by the house, you will be contacted to delete it.” The warning continued: “The cybersecurity office considered that WhatsApp was at high risk for users because of the lack of transparency in the way it protects user data, the lack of encryption of stored data and potential safety risks linked to its use.”
In a press release shared with Gizmodo, a Meta spokesman said that he “concerned these false reports [spread by Iranian state media] will be an excuse for our services to be blocked at a time when people need it most. “The spokesman added:” We do not follow your precise location, we do not hold the newspapers of whom everyone sends a message and we do not follow the personal messages that people send each other, “he added. In response to house restrictions on WhatsApp, Meta Communications Agent Andy Stone said the company does not agree “The characterization of the administrative director of the Chamber in the strongest possible terms.” Gizmodo contacted Meta for more information.
In the past, the director of the chamber administration has published advice restricting the use of the congress of other popular applications, in particular Chinese AI tool Deepseek And Bytedance, the Chinese owner of Tiktok. The senate has not issued such gudesapp directives.
WhatsApp has been criticized several times over the years for various Safety related problemsalthough the application makes Use a very strong E2E encryptionAnd there is no evidence that meta-put this encryption. In 2021, Propublica detailed Facebook is alleged to “undermine” the protections of WhatsApp’s privacy.
Meanwhile, Meta has often been accused of turning on with Israel with regard to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. In 2023, Human Rights Watch accused the company to systematically delete Pro-Palestinian content on Instagram and Facebook. Last December, the BBC reported that Meta had actively abolished the circulation of news on the Gaza War in the Palestinian territories. Meta Supervisory Board claimed that the company has exceeded its limits when it comes to moderating pro-Palestinian content.
Although we have not seen any public cases of governments with a stolen door in WhatsApp, in May, the Israeli Society of Cyber-Intelligence NSO Group was ordered to pay Meta $ 167 million after hacking 1,400 of its users in 2019.
