Iran lifts ban on WhatsApp, Google Play, week after pausing new hijab law
Iran has lifted the ban on Meta’s messaging platform WhatsApp and Google Play, a first step to scale back internet restrictions, Reuters quoted the Iranian state media on Tuesday.
Tehran has some of the strictest internet controls in the world. However, tech-savvy Iranians using virtual private networks (VPN) routinely bypass blocks on social platforms like Facebook, X and YouTube.
“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 on Tuesday, referring to a meeting on the matter headed by President Masoud Pezeshkian.
“Today the first step in removing internet limitations… has been taken,” IRNA quoted the Islamic Republic’s minister of information and communications technology Sattar Hashemi as saying.
Social media platforms were widely used in anti-government protests in Iran. In September the United States called on Big Tech to help evade online censorship in countries that heavily censor the internet, including Iran.
Iran stays new, stricter hijab law
On December 18, Iran paused the process of implementing a new and stricter law on women’s hijab, AP reported. The law approved by the Iranian parliament in September last year will not be sent to the government.
The law levies harsher punishments for women who refuse to wear the hijab and for businesses that serve them, penalties previously rejected by Iran’s president Masoud Pezeshkian as he tries to restart talks with the West over sanctions imposed on Iran over its nuclear program.
“According to the discussions held, it was decided that this law will not be referred to the government by the parliament for now,” Shahram Dabiri, the vice president in charge of parliamentary affairs, was quoted as saying by the agency.
Had the bill passed to the government, Iran’s president would have had little room to maneuver. By law, he’s required to endorse the bill within five days, after which it would have taken effect in 15 days. The president has no authority to veto it.
Pezeshkian could try to convince Iran’s 85-year-old Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who has final say on all matters of state, to halt the bill.