Iranian authorities have lifted a ban on Meta's instant messaging platform WhatsApp, as well as the Android app store Google Play, in a first step in reducing internet restrictions, state media reported on Tuesday.
Iran has some of the strictest controls on internet access in the world, but its blocks on US-based social media such as Facebook, X and YouTube are routinely bypassed by tech-savvy citizens using virtual private networks.
“A positive majority vote has been reached to lift limitations on access to some popular foreign platforms such as WhatsApp and Google Play,” Iran's official Irna news agency said, referring to a meeting on the matter led by President Masoud Pezeshkian.
The Supreme Council of Cyberspace approved the lifting of blocks on “certain widely used foreign platforms”, according to Irna, which named WhatsApp and Google Play as the first two applications to be unblocked.
“Today the first step in removing internet limitations has been taken,” state media quoted Iran's Minister of Information and Communications Technology Sattar Hashemi as saying.
It was not clear when the easing would take effect. Social media platforms were widely used in anti-government protests in Iran, the most recent and significant of which began in September 2022, after the death in police custody of a young woman arrested after wearing her mandatory hijab “inappropriately”.
Since the 2009 protests against the re-election of hardliner Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, social media networks including Facebook, X and YouTube have been banned or restricted by authorities who blamed them for facilitating protests and fomenting opposition to the state.
Iran’s government has faced criticism for years from citizens, western governments, the UN and political activists for its draconian attitude towards the internet. Officials – most of whom use banned social media sites to run their own public-facing accounts – often fail to deliver on promises to reduce censorship.
“The process of lifting cyberspace restrictions will be multi-staged and ongoing, and it won’t be limited to the removal of restrictions on one or a few platforms,” Irna said.
Complete internet blackouts have often been imposed on Iranians. In 2022, Iranian anti-government protests prompted the US government to ease restrictions on internet services to the country, such as Elon Musk’s Starlink. In September, the US called on Big Tech to help evade online censorship in countries that heavily censor the internet, including Iran.
The Washington-based Freedom House said Iran was among the three least-free countries in the world in terms of internet access – after China and Myanmar – in its annual “internet Freedom Scores” ranking.