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Meta’s secure messaging service, WhatsApp, has announced a new proxy service to get around recent censorship from countries such as Iran.
This is a significant departure for the company, which had previously declared it would not support proxy use. Iran blocked access to WhatsApp last September following the outbreak of ongoing protests against the death in custody of Mahsa Amini, a 27-year-old woman who had been arrested for wearing “unsuitable attire” a week before.
“Our wish for 2023 is that these internet shutdowns never occur,” WhatsApp said in a recent blog post. “Disruptions like we’ve seen in Iran for months on end deny people’s human rights and cut people off from receiving urgent help. Though in case these shutdowns continue, we hope this solution helps people wherever there is a need for secure and reliable communication.”
Users wishing to use a proxy will still need to search for one to use online, but once one is found, setting it up is pretty simple. Just go to Settings (in the Chats tab on Android), click on Storage and Data > Proxy. Then tap on Use Proxy, then Set Proxy, and tap on Save.
A Checkmark should appear, showing a successful connection.
WhatsApp does point out that using a proxy will share a user’s IP address with the proxy server, but that communications will otherwise remain secure. Neither Meta or WhatsApp will have access to what is said between two parties, nor the proxy server itself, however.
WhatsApp boss Will Cathcart took to Twitter to make the announcement.
“Happy New Year!” his tweet began. “While many of us celebrated by texting our loved ones on WA, there are millions of people in Iran and elsewhere who continue to be denied the right to communicate freely and privately. So today we’re making it easier for anyone to connect to WA using a proxy.”
For those wishing to set up a WhatsApp proxy server, a guide and full documentation can be found here on GitHub.
David Hollingworth has been writing about technology for over 20 years, and has worked for a range of print and online titles in his career. He is enjoying getting to grips with cyber security, especially when it lets him talk about Lego.
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