‘Tens of millions’ of people secretly use WhatsApp in countries where it is banned – including China and North Korea, messaging platform’s boss reveals

With an estimated two billion active users per month, WhatsApp is the most popular mobile messenger app in the world.

But it appears many of the platform’s users are in countries where it has been controversially banned, such as China and North Korea.

Will Cathcart, head of WhatsApp at Meta, said “tens of millions” of people in these countries are using tech workarounds to secretly access the chat app.

An example of this is virtual private networks (VPNs), which make it appear as if users are connected to the Internet in a different location.

However, China recently stepped up its campaign against WhatsApp by removing it from Apple’s App Store.

WhatsApp is blocked in China, North Korea, Syria and Qatar, while the app’s features are severely limited in Qatar, Egypt, Jordan and the United Arab Emirates.

“We have a lot of anecdotal reports from people using WhatsApp (in these countries),” Cathcart said BBC news.

“You’d be surprised how many people realize it.”

According to the tech boss, WhatsApp employees can see where users are by looking at their registered phone number, which has the telltale international country codes on the front.

“What we can do is look at some of the countries where we see blocks and still see tens of millions of people connecting to WhatsApp,” he said.

In China, the government has blocked WhatsApp since 2017, although VPNs have since provided people in the country with a potential loophole.

People visiting China will need to set up a VPN to access WhatsApp there, as well as other banned Meta apps like Facebook and Instagram.

However, last month the Chinese government ordered Apple to remove WhatsApp from the Chinese App Store, making it even harder for people to use it.

China has also ordered Apple to remove Threads, Meta’s social network that is similar to Elon Musk’s Platform X.

The tech giant said it was forced to do so by the Chinese government’s Cyberspace Administration of China, which cited national security concerns.

“The Cyberspace Administration of China has ordered the removal of these apps from the Chinese storefront based on their national security concerns,” Apple said in a statement.

“We are obliged to follow the laws in the countries where we operate, even if we disagree with them.”

It is unclear whether WhatsApp is still accessible on the Google Play Store for Android smartphones in China and Meta has declined to comment further.

Cathcart called China’s decision to remove WhatsApp “unfortunate,” but added that the country has never been a big market for the app.

China – known for its tight control over its citizens’ lives – is instead favoring WeChat, owned by Shenzhen-developed tech giant Tencent.

The ‘Great Firewall of China’ has become the catch-all term for Chinese legislation that blocks internet services in the country.

And under Chinese law, companies can be forced to “support, cooperate and cooperate with national intelligence efforts.”

Cathcart also said that WhatsApp’s proxy service, which launched last year, has kept the app accessible in countries with internet shutdowns, such as Iran.

Internet shutdowns are intentional disruptions of internet access and digital communications, often done by governments to silence dissidents online.

The boss described his efforts to bring instant messaging to people bound by “authoritarian governments” as “an ongoing struggle.”

“We take great pride in providing secure, private communications that are free from surveillance by authoritarian governments, or even government censorship, to people around the world who would not otherwise have them,” he said. .