Iran’s Hassan Rouhani Rejects Ban of ‘Zionist’ WhatsApp
Image by getty images
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani has rejected a plan to ban the free text-messaging service WhatsApp.
The plan was approved by an Iranian censorship committee and then announced Sunday by Abdolsamad Khorramabadi, head of the country’s Committee for Determining Criminal Web Content.
“The reason for this is the assumption of WhatsApp by the Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, who is an American Zionist,” Khorramabadi reportedly said Sunday.
Access to Twitter and Facebook, and other social networks, as well as other controversial websites, are often blocked by Iranian authorities. Iran does not ban Facebook, however. Rouhani has been active in recent months on the social networking site as well as Twitter.
Iran’s Telecommunications Minister Mahmoud Vaezi said Wednesday that Rouhani had ordered a stop to the proposed ban of WhatsApp, until there is something to take its place, the French news agency AFP reported, citing the Arab-language, reformist daily Sharq.
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.
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
