As we head into the new year, WhatsApp has introduced a new feature to help people avoid government-imposed internet shutdowns. This is what the United Nations said last summer undermined human rights.
“To help with this, today we are launching proxy support for WhatsApp users around the world,” said a WhatsApp statement. “What this means is that we are putting the power in people’s hands to maintain access to WhatsApp even if their connection is blocked or interrupted.”
WhatsApp’s new proxy support feature allows users to “connect to WhatsApp through servers set up by volunteers and organizations around the world dedicated to enabling people to communicate freely.” It also allows users to set their own proxy his server to allow other users to connect to the app. This feature is currently available to all users running the latest version of the app.
WhatsApp did not immediately respond to Ars’ request for comment on how long the feature has been in development. In its statement, the messaging app cited the internet’s “denial of human rights and deprivation of people of urgent assistance” as the main motive, which has been seen in Iran for months. Kind of confusing.” (update: A WhatsApp spokesperson told Ars that WhatsApp regularly consults with human rights groups on “freedom of expression and privacy issues,” and WhatsApp consulted these experts when developing the proxy feature. A spokesperson told Ars that WhatsApp “started building this feature into its app in the last few months of last year, so people can take advantage of the technology on their devices when they upgrade WhatsApp. It’s become like this,” he said. WhatsApp announced the feature once the “majority of users” upgraded to “a version that can use proxies.” Now WhatsApp hopes that the community, his partners and users will help spread awareness of this feature to those in the community who are particularly vulnerable to the shutdown of the internet. )
According to WhatsApp, users in regions affected by the shutdown can expect the same level of privacy and security when communicating through the app after connecting through proxy servers that users expect from WhatsApp. All communications are protected by end-to-end encryption. This allows it to “stay between you and the person you’re communicating with, not a proxy server, WhatsApp or Meta, and not be seen by anyone in between.”
WhatsApp’s new features come at a time when an internet shutdown is affecting hundreds of millions of people. According to his independent VPN review site Top10VPN, the cost of government-imposed internet shutdowns has increased by more than 300% since 2021. $24 billion. Social media blocks in these regions reached 26,865 hours. Reuters reported that Iran imposed a social media block on WhatsApp after an Iranian woman, Masa Amini, was arrested for “improperly dressed” and died in police custody.
Top10VPN reported that Russia was the “only country most affected”, costing $21.59 billion to shut down the Internet, and $773 million to shut down Iran. did.
About 51% of government internet outages related to additional human rights violations, such as restrictions on the right to assembly and freedom of the press. With 710 million people reportedly affected by these disruptions last year, WhatsApp’s new features offer at least one safe way in 2023 to help governments shut down their citizens by shutting down the internet. It aims to prevent sudden or permanent censorship.
