Iranian state media are urging civilians to delete WhatsApp to prevent Israeli cyberattacks.
Unfortunately, there is a lot of misinformation spreading around on both sides. Most existing articles (such as this one) are framing it as a free speech or censorship issue. For example:
Iranian state television on Tuesday afternoon urged people to remove WhatsApp from their smartphones, alleging without specific evidence that the messaging app gathered user information to send to Israel.
In a statement, WhatsApp said it was “concerned these false reports will be an excuse for our services to be blocked at a time when people need them the most.” WhatsApp uses end-to-end encryption, meaning a service provider in the middle can’t read a message.
“We do not track your precise location, we don’t keep logs of who everyone is messaging and we do not track the personal messages people are sending one another,” it added. “We do not provide bulk information to any government.”
Given past examples of targeted spyware affecting WhatsApp users, I don’t think this risk is unwarranted. Most likely, both the Iranian government and the wider press are not technically literate enough to understand how it can be used as an attack vector. Simple information as “not clicking on suspicious links”, “not joining random group chats”, or “disabling media attachments” can resolve most worries about spyware sent through WhatsApp.
TLDR; Iranian government assumes that WhatsApp is spying on its users. The press assumes that Iran is using the conflict as an excuse to clamp down on free speech. In reality, the situation is much more complicated.