WhatsApp announces the launch of a connection system through a proxy server to avoid censorship.
Whatever one thinks of the application of Meta, using WhatsApp is a privilege. Although the application is extremely popular around the world, some countries do not hesitate to censor the service for essentially political reasons. This has been the case for example in Iran since September, but the WhatsApp teams have found a solution to circumvent this problem.
Internet censored in Iran
When we think of Internet censorship, we first think of China and its ” Grand Firewall » limiting access to Western services. However, there are other countries where it is difficult to access the global network, like Iran, which has been experiencing major protests for several months. These began following the death of a 22-year-old Iranian girl, Mahsa Amini, arrested a few days earlier by the morality police for not having respected the dress code in force in the country for women.
If you’ve been following the news over the past few months, you probably haven’t missed this case, but the Iranian government is trying to limit its spread by blocking access to Western platforms, including Instagram, Skype or WhatsApp.
Proxy servers on WhatsApp
To combat this, WhatsApp has just announced a new feature: connection via a proxy server set up by volunteers or organizations. It is a third-party server that acts as an intermediary for communication on a network. See it as and VPNsmuch more simplistic since there is no additional layer of encryption.
WhatsApp nevertheless wishes to reassure regarding the security of its application: despite this intermediary, the messages remain encrypted from end to end.
Connecting through a proxy server maintains the high level of privacy and security offered by WhatsApp. Personal messages will always be protected by end-to-end encryption, which means that they will remain between the people communicating and no one else can see them, not even proxy servers, WhatsApp or Meta.
In countries blocking certain DNS only to avoid connection to specific services, as is the case in Iran, this will allow the inhabitants of the country to circumvent the restrictions. However, the IP address remains shared with the proxy.
How to use a proxy on WhatsApp?
Anyone can set up a proxy using a server on ports 80, 443, or 5222 and a domain name pointing to the server’s IP address. Sources are available on GitHub.
On the user side, simply go to the application settings, then:
- Storage and data → Proxy ;
- Use proxy ;
- Set proxythen enter the proxy address;
- Save.
For this feature to appear, you must of course have the latest version of the application.
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