Iran restores access to WhatsApp and Google Play after they were banned amid protests

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TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — Iran's government on Tuesday said it had lifted a ban on access to WhatsApp and Google Play after more than two years, the official IRNA news agency reported.

The report said the country’s Supreme Council of Cyber Space made the decision in a meeting led by reformist President Masoud Pezeshkian, who has vowed to remove restrictions on social media.

Iran’s telecommunication minister Sattar Heshemi in a post on X called the decision a “first step” in removing restrictions and said “the path will continue" — indicating the possibility of unblocking other services.

Many people reached by The Associated Press across the capital, Tehran, and other cities said they had access to the services on computers but not yet on mobile phones.

WhatsApp has been the third most popular messaging platform in Iran after Instagram and Telegram.

The ban on WhatsApp and Google Play was put in place in 2022 during mass protests against the government over the death of a woman held by the country’s morality police for allegedly violating the strictly enforced dress code. The protests calmed in 2023 after a crackdown by police and security forces that led to the death of hundreds of people and the imprisonment of thousands.

Iran has blocked access to various social media platforms over the years but many people in the country use proxies and VPNs to access them.