In the last few days, WhatsApp has ended up in the center of a geopolitical and digital storm that surprisingly unites two powers that have always opposed: Iran and the United States. Although for different reasons, both governments are questioning the use of the most popular messaging app in the world, raising concerns related to data security and users’ privacy.
Iran accuses WHATSApp of espionage in favor of Israel
Iranian state television recently invited citizens to uninstall WhatsApp, accusing the app of collecting sensitive information and then transmitting them to the Israeli government. It is not the first time that Tehran takes a position against western platforms: already in 2022, after the protests for the death of Mahsa Amini, the government had banned WhatsApp and Instagram for security and control reasons.
The United States also say stop, but for other reasons
In parallel, in the United States there is a similar position, but for different reasons. According to reports from the Axios website, the Chief Administrative Officer of the Chamber of Representatives has formally forbidden the use of WhatsApp on government devices.
In an internal communication, we read that the app represents “a risk for users due to poor transparency in data management, the absence of encryption on archived data and potential security vulnerability”.
The employees were therefore asked to uninstall WhatsApp by mobile and desktop devices, suggesting as an alternative applications considered safer, such as:
Microsoft Teams
Wickr (by Amazon)
Signal
iMessage and FaceTime (Apple)
The contradiction of privacy on WhatsApp
WhatsApp, purchased from Meta in 2014, has been advertised for years as an extremely safe app, thanks to end-to-end encryption (E2E), which-at least in theory-prevents anyone, including Whatsapp itself, from reading or listening to communications between users.
However, the so -called metadata remain accessible: technical and outline data such as contacts, IP addresses, device information, use chronology. Meta can share them with the authorities on request, as already happened in the past.
Meta denies, but trust falls
Meta has decisively denied the accusations from Iran. In a statement to Gizmodo, a spokesman said:
“We do not trace the exact position of the users, we do not keep the messages received and do not monitor the conversations in the app. We do not provide information to any government”.
Despite these reassurances, the trust towards Meta remains fragile. Organizations like Human Rights Watch have accused the company of censoring pro-Palestinian content on Instagram and Facebook. In addition, Israeli propaganda video – often hostile to Hamas and Iran – have been publicly promoted through the Meta platforms.
A new front for digital privacy
To date, there is no public tests that WhatsApp has violated end-to-end encryption that governments have had direct access to users’ messages. However, the growing diffidence towards the app – shared by two enemy governments such as Washington and Tehran – opens a new chapter in the debate on digital surveillance and on the protection of personal data.
In short, the WhatsApp case shows how online privacy has become a geopolitical question, destined to weigh more and more in technological choices and national security strategies.