Iranian authorities have lifted a ban on Meta’s messaging platform WhatsApp and Google Play app purchase service as a first step towards easing internet restrictions, state media reported.
“A positive majority vote has been received to lift limits on access to some popular foreign platforms such as WhatsApp and Google Play,” Iran’s official news agency IRNA said, referring to a meeting chaired by President Massoud Pezeshkian.
The agency quoted Sattar Hashemi, Iran’s minister of information and communications technology, as saying the move was “the first step toward removing Internet limitations.”
This country has some of the strictest controls on internet access in the world. These include restrictions 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 circumvented by tech-savvy Iranians who use virtual private networks (VPNs).
Social media platforms were widely used in anti-government protests in Iran.
In September, the US called on big tech companies to help circumvent online censorship in countries with heavy internet censorship, including Iran.
ftm/dj (AFP, Reuters)
