WhatsApp is really getting under the skin of the authorities in certain Asian and African countries. Just in the last couple days, there has been a move to block the service in Indonesia, and Afghan authorities have had to deny reports that they were planning to do the same. Last month it was China, and shortly before that it was Cameroon.<\/p>\n
The reasons for these shutdown attempts are varied, though they all point to the same basic issue: the supposed negative effect of unfettered communication on social order. So let\u2019s examine these recent incidents more closely, starting with the latest threat.<\/p>\n
On Monday, Semuel Pangerapan, the director general of Indonesia\u2019s communications ministry, said WhatsApp would be blocked within 48 hours<\/a> if the platform did not expunge \u201cobscene\u201d GIFs that are provided by third parties. The GIF keyboard provider Tenor has already been blocked in the country, but people can access such services through the popular messaging app, which has around 69 million users in Indonesia.<\/p>\n The core problem here, of course, is that WhatsApp\u2019s messages are encrypted, so the service provider doesn\u2019t know what people are putting into them. So WhatsApp has been telling the Indonesian authorities to go talk to the third-party GIF providers.<\/p>\n Here\u2019s what WhatsApp said:<\/p>\n \u201cWe are not able to monitor GIFs on WhatsApp since content is end-to-end encrypted. We\u2019ve directed the Indonesia government to work with these third-party providers to review their content.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Pangerapan is not amused. \u201cThe GIFs appeared in their apps. Why do we have to be the one speaking to the third party? They are supposed to be the ones managing it,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n A few months ago, Indonesia threatened to ban the encrypted messaging app Telegram, this time over \u201cnegative\u201d content such as terrorist propaganda \u2013 remember, Telegram isn\u2019t just for direct messaging; it\u2019s also for publishing messages to a broad audience, through its channel system. However, the company reached an agreement with the Indonesian authorities that saw the ban threat lifted<\/a>.<\/p>\n Speaking of which, a couple days ago Afghan media reported<\/a> that the authorities there wanted to ban both WhatsApp and Telegram, in order to hinder private communication between members of the Taliban and other insurgent groups.<\/p>\n However, on Monday Afghan government spokesman Javid Faisal took to social media to impress upon people that no, there was no social media ban being contemplated. He explicitly said that WhatsApp and Telegram would stay up in the country.<\/p>\n Government of #Afghanistan<\/a> isn\u2019t going to ban any social media platforms. Whatsapp and Telegram to continue operating in Afghanistan.<\/p>\n \u2014 Javid Faisal (@Javidfaisal) November 6, 2017<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n