Iran Bans WhatsApp Over ‘American Zionist’ Zuckerberg

Image by Getty Images

By JTA May 4, 2014

Iran has banned the free text-messaging service WhatsApp, since it is owned by a Jew, according to news reports citing an Iranian censor.

“The reason for this is the assumption of WhatsApp by the Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, who is an American Zionist,” said Abdolsamad Khorramabadi, head of the country’s secretary of the Committee for Determining Criminal Web Content, Fox News reported Sunday.

WhatsApp was acquired in February by Facebook for a reported $19 billion in cash and stock.

Zuckerberg is Facebook’s founder and chief executive.

Facebook currently is not banned in Iran, and Iranian president Hassan Rouhani has been active in recent months on Facebook and Twitter.

A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

Now more than ever, American Jews need independent news they can trust, with reporting driven by truth, not ideology. We serve you, not any ideological agenda

At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse..

Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.

— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO