'They are sharing your location and data': says Iran days after targetted bombing of nuclear scientists, urges citizens to delete WhatsApp

June 18, 2025 by News Desk

Days after the deaths of several Iranian nuclear scientists in Israeli airstrikes, Iranian authorities have accused WhatsApp of tracking and sharing the real-time locations of Iranian users with foreign entities, particularly Israel.

The claim, which emerged amid intensifying hostilities between Tehran and Tel Aviv, was prominently broadcast by IRIB and echoed across several state-affiliated media platforms.

According to reports from Iranian outlets such as Mehr News and Mashregh News, the government has warned citizens against using WhatsApp, alleging that the platform has been “tagging the last known whereabouts” of users and transmitting that data to what they described as the “Zionist enemy.”

Officials advised people to immediately delete WhatsApp and refrain from carrying mobile devices with the app installed in or near sensitive locations.

“People should refrain from taking their mobile phones to strategic areas. WhatsApp and Telegram are being used to identify and target individuals,” a report on state TV said.

In response, WhatsApp, a subsidiary of Meta, rejected the accusations outright. The company reiterated that all messages on its platform are protected by end-to-end encryption and are not accessible to third parties, including WhatsApp itself.

“We do not provide any bulk information to any government,” a WhatsApp spokesperson said. “We are concerned these false reports will be used as an excuse to block access to our services at a time when people need them the most.”

The company also clarified that it does not track users’ precise locations or maintain logs of personal messages.

This is not the first time Iran has accused a foreign tech company of cooperating with hostile intelligence agencies. During the 2022 protests following the death of Mahsa Amini in the custody of the morality police, Iran banned WhatsApp and Google Play, citing national security threats.

While the ban was lifted in 2024, the Iranian government has continued to view Western tech platforms with deep suspicion, often portraying them as tools of espionage and foreign influence.

While the recent allegations have not been supported by publicly available technical evidence, their timing—just days after precision strikes killed several high-ranking scientists—has led to speculation. Iranian sources claim at least nine scientists were killed in the June attacks, most of whom were reportedly involved in missile or nuclear research.

Globally, there have been several high-profile incidents where companies—especially from the West—were accused of sharing user data with hostile or foreign states.

In the early 2000s, Yahoo handed over the personal email data of Chinese dissidents to Chinese authorities, resulting in arrests and prison sentences. Facebook’s Cambridge Analytica scandal revealed how personal data of millions of users was harvested without consent and used for political purposes.

The most long-running covert operation of its kind was exposed in 2020 when it was revealed that Crypto AG, a Swiss company that sold encryption devices to over 100 countries, was secretly owned and operated by the CIA and German intelligence, allowing the U.S. to read confidential communications from governments around the world.

Even within the U.S., concerns about data security have led to severe scrutiny of foreign-owned apps. Most notably, American officials have repeatedly accused TikTok, owned by China’s ByteDance, of posing a national security threat by potentially allowing the Chinese government access to American users’ data. These concerns have led to congressional hearings, executive orders, and attempts to force a sale of TikTok’s U.S. operations.

The latest accusations against WhatsApp by Iranian authorities follow this broader trend of digital distrust in an era of global surveillance, cyber warfare, and information control.

Whether Iran’s claims stem from verifiable intelligence or form part of a larger narrative to justify increased restrictions on digital platforms remains unclear. But with the region edging closer to a broader conflict, even encrypted messaging apps are not safe from th

e battlefield.