A new feature is now available in WhatsApp. This allows you to create and use a proxy, to go through an intermediate access point and avoid blocking the service. Censorship in Iran is targeted.
Sometimes targeted by censorship, the WhatsApp application now has a tool to circumvent it. It is all the meaning of the announcement made by instant messaging on January 5, 2023 on its official website, with the arrival of a setting in its options. This is actually a new section, called proxy, which allows you to go through an intermediate channel to escape a blockage.
A proxy is a waypoint between the Internet user’s device (this can be their smartphone, tablet, computer, etc.) and the server or device they want to reach. In the case of WhatsApp, it is a question of allowing access to its service if it is censored, by first passing the Internet user through an intermediary who is not.
Despite the circulation of data – and therefore messages – via a third party, there is no risk for the confidentiality of the exchanges, due to the end-to-end encryption applied by default on WhatsApp. Even assuming the proxy is operated by malicious people, communications will remain encrypted — only metadata can be seen.
” Connecting through a proxy server maintains the high level of privacy and security offered by WhatsApp. Personal messages will always be protected by end-to-end encryption, which means that they will remain between the people communicating and no one else will be able to see them, not even proxy servers, WhatsApp or Meta. “, is it explained.
WhatsApp specifically targets censorship in Iran
The measure is aimed primarily at people in countries run by authoritarian or dictatorial regimes – countries like China, Turkey, Bangladesh have already blocked WhatsApp. More recently, it was in Iran that access to WhatsApp servers was blocked for try to break the protest movement against Tehran.
Anyone can set up a proxy server if they want and have the skill to do so, whether they are an individual or a non-governmental organization. To help, WhatsApp provides in its support pages a guide to setting up a proxy server. The app also explains how to enable proxyif you are in a country that censors the service.
In fact, it is probably above all NGOs and activists who will seize this new tool, in particular through the diaspora of the countries which are confronted with this censorship. In its announcement, WhatsApp specifically cites Iran, which ” violates human rights by preventing the population from receiving urgent aid “.
