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Iran asks its people to delete WhatsApp from their devices

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Re: Iran asks its people to delete WhatsApp from their devices

#491

Post by scott_w »

coliveira wrote: post #486
scott_w wrote: post #342

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Then you’ll be excluded from a lot of groups and social activities without even knowing. That might be an acceptable trade off for you but it's a trade off nonetheless.

I'm not in high school to be afraid of being "excluded" from some social activities.

And that’s fine, just pointing out that if you were part of a sports club, parents group, whatever, you’re relying on someone keeping you in the loop and making your life harder if you want to be part of it. I don’t judge, I just don’t see why you think it’s immature to want to have a social life.

Re: Iran asks its people to delete WhatsApp from their devices

#492

Post by AlecSchueler »

AnimalMuppet wrote: post #449
AlecSchueler wrote: post #437

Why isn't this flagged? Surely this is politics.

Politics, yes, but: 1. Politics has been getting more freedom here lately, especially if it's the first story about something new. This is, as far as I can see, the first story about this. 2. The story has an interesting technical component, about encryption, privacy, and tracking - things that a lot of HN users care about. 3. It mostly hasn't deteriorated into a flamefest.

Politics hasn't been getting more freedom here lately, though, that was my sarcastic point. Every day there's a bunch of stuff flagged off of the front page for being only tangentially related to contemporary American politics yet this gets the thumbs up. It's indicative of people trying to quell certain types of political conversation only.

Number two on your list shouldn't apply because we've seen many technical articles about Tesla, DOGE, etc flagged in the past months

3 shouldn't apply either because we lose posts every day just because they have the "potential" for flaming.

Re: Iran asks its people to delete WhatsApp from their devices

#493

Post by [deleted] »

llm_nerd wrote: post #450
perihelions wrote: post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Meta can also just lie about it. If they were secretly granting backdoor root access to some NSA spooks, like Microsoft did with PRISM or AT&T did with 641A, most likely no one would find out, so, there'd be zero actual downside to simply lying.

Palantir, Meta and OpenAI just had executives commissioned as lieutenant colonels in the US armed forces. They are defacto extensions of the US government now. It is rather shocking seeing how rapidly the US is shifting from all of its historic norms. Trump sees the US as a "store" where he dictates the terms, he directly has control over US Steel after the Nippon Steel "takeover" -- straight out of the communist cen…

[deleted]

Re: Iran asks its people to delete WhatsApp from their devices

#494

Post by MoonGhost »

anticodon wrote: post #398
MoonGhost wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Could be some other mechanism if it was it would be true for telegram as well.

After arrest of Durov in France I think the same. Doesn't change the fact that any single Russian soldier is not using WhatsApp. It's considered compromised with very convincing evidence, along with some other apps (I don't remember all the names, possible to find in military news channels if you know Russian).

Can you summarize it, was Telegram compromised? Is there evidence of leaks from Russian soldiers' messages.

Re: Iran asks its people to delete WhatsApp from their devices

#495

Post by warbaker »

grafmax wrote: post #490
warbaker wrote: post #487

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Israel wants nothing more than for Iran to be free of the IRGC. Unlike Israel's Arab neighbors, Iran didn't attempt to destroy Israel (and kill all the Jews) in 1948. Before the IRGC took over, Iran and Israel had no problems. The IRGC has made it clear that destroying Israel is one of their primary foreign policy objectives. They have said this, and it's why they funded Hamas, Hezbollah, and the Houthis.

Israel wants a regime change, that is clear. However it’s absurd to suggest the Israeli government has benevolent intentions toward the Iranian people considering that it is bombing people living in residential areas (never mind the Israeli defense minister’s comments that the Tehran residents will pay for Iran’s counterattack on Israel).

"Israel's defense minister warned Saturday that "Tehran will burn" if Iran continues firing missiles at Israel." https://www.cbsnews.com/news/iran-israel-retaliatory-strikes...

Don't get me wrong, Katz is a douchebag, but this was specifically a threat to retaliate in-kind of Iran continued to target arbitrary Israeli population centers.

I haven't seen any evidence of Israel targeting civilians (nuclear scientists aside), despite having complete air supremacy over Tehran. Air supremacy means Israel could carpet bomb the city if they wanted, but they don't want this. Not only would it be a horrible thing to do and of no military value, they simply don't blame the people of Iran for the IRGC's actions.

Re: Iran asks its people to delete WhatsApp from their devices

#496

Post by grafmax »

warbaker wrote: post #495
grafmax wrote: post #490

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Israel wants a regime change, that is clear. However it’s absurd to suggest the Israeli government has benevolent intentions toward the Iranian people considering that it is bombing people living in residential areas (never mind the Israeli defense minister’s comments that the Tehran residents will pay for Iran’s counterattack on Israel).

"Israel's defense minister warned Saturday that "Tehran will burn" if Iran continues firing missiles at Israel." https://www.cbsnews.com/news/iran-israel-retaliatory-strikes... Don't get me wrong, Katz is a douchebag, but this was specifically a threat to retaliate in-kind of Iran continued to target arbitrary Israeli population centers. I haven't seen any evidence of Israel targeting civilians (nuclear scientists as…

> Not only would it be a horrible thing to do and of no military value, they simply don't blame the people of Iran for the IRGC's actions.

So then it’s remarkable that it’s nevertheless occurring.

I posted this elsewhere ITT but the parent comment is now flagged so it may be difficult to find. I post it below.

> Shock, fear in Tehran after Israel bombs residential, military areas

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/6/13/shock-fear-in-tehra...

> Today, Iran is once again under heavy bombardment with Israeli air strikes targeting residential areas, civilian buildings, hospitals, media offices and military sites.

https://apnews.com/article/israel-iran-mideast-war-news-06-1...

> Health authorities also reported that 1,277 were wounded, without distinguishing between military officials and civilians.

https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/israel-attack-iran-civili...

There are countless reports of this nature.

Re: Iran asks its people to delete WhatsApp from their devices

#497

Post by anticodon »

MoonGhost wrote: post #494
anticodon wrote: post #398

Earlier quoted context omitted.

After arrest of Durov in France I think the same. Doesn't change the fact that any single Russian soldier is not using WhatsApp. It's considered compromised with very convincing evidence, along with some other apps (I don't remember all the names, possible to find in military news channels if you know Russian).

Can you summarize it, was Telegram compromised? Is there evidence of leaks from Russian soldiers' messages.

There were evidence of leaks of soldiers' messages from WhatsApp.

I do not know for sure if there are leaks from Telegram, but I think that Durov was pressed for enabling backdoors for CIA when he was arrested in France.

It's not like there's a registry of compromised apps in Russia that is available to public. When there were WhatsApp leaks it was widely published on Russian news channels, that's why I know about it and tell everyone to not trust WhatsApp.

But I don't closely follow every news item from the front, I know that some other apps are also considered compromised (mainly some navigation apps), but I don't know the whole list or if Telegram is being used on the front.

I guess the safest option is to not use telephone at all at war, since there are probably backdoors everywhere starting from cell modem firmware. I guess that since about middle-end of 2022 all military personnel has the same opinion and stopped using smartphones altogether or use them in flight mode with communications disabled.

Re: Iran asks its people to delete WhatsApp from their devices

#498

Post by [deleted] »

TacticalCoder wrote: post #165
pier25 wrote: post #116

Israel doesn't even need Whatsapp to be installed. The IDF's Unit 8200[1] can probably hack most phones in Iran. And if not any of the private companies selling spyware software like the NSO Group[2 and 3]. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unit_8200 [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NSO_Group [3] https://mepc.org/commentaries/israeli-cyber-companies-overvi...

I think that that's the excuse the current regime in Iran is using to try to prevent iranians from coordinating a coup. By "chance" the rightful crown prince (Pahlavi dynasty), an exile, is now making a comeback on social media, saying that the current iranian regime shall fail. There are talks online as to how the current regime is falling: and there are a lot of people who would be very happy to see those bearded m…

[deleted]

Re: Iran asks its people to delete WhatsApp from their devices

#499

Post by dralley »

lcnPylGDnU4H9OF wrote: post #448
dralley wrote: post #332

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There was no "Palestinian territory" in the 1967 map. Gaza was part of Egypt, the West Bank was part of Jordan. But neither Egypt nor Jordan want anything to do with them now because of the internal instability it would inevitably result in.

Regardless of other borders, Israel would retreat back to its 1967 borders. That is what they are saying.

They won't. The 1967 borders were broken by a war Israel did not start, but still won anyway. And Palestinians have refused any agreement on where the border should reside since then, which resulted in the current limbo situation. From Israel's perspective, if people wanted to keep the 1967 borders, they shouldn't have tried to invade (again) in 1973. Why would they go back to the terms of an agreement that was already violated.

Re: Iran asks its people to delete WhatsApp from their devices

#500

Post by ngruhn »

noworriesnate wrote: post #454
mousethatroared wrote: post #431

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I thought I implied that I don't care.

The obvious solution is to get Israel to give up nukes in exchange for Iran stopping its nuclear program. I think that would everyone happy except the Israelis who want to murder people without repercussion.

It's crazy to me that this is peoples take away. Iran, Hezbollah, Hamas have the explicitly stated goal to annihilate Israel and its people. But Israel is the genozidal one. They're attacking military targets in Iran. Iran is bombing urban centers. I'm sure the IDF would very much prefer to only attack military targets in Gaza as well. Unfortunately, the Hamas decided to hide them under houses.
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