Iranโs Committee on Internet Crimes has banned WhatsApp, the cross-platform instant messaging subscription service for smartphones that American hi-tech tycoon Mark Zuckerberg recently acquired.
โThe reason for this is the assumption of WhatsApp by the Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, who is an American Zionist,โ Abdolsamad Khorramabadi, head of the committee, said, Fox News reported on Friday.
Meanwhile, the US Commission on International Religious Freedom blasted the Islamic Republic last week in a report on the repression of religious freedom, Fox News reported.
Iran โcontinues to propagate anti-Semitism and target members of the Jewish community on the basis of real or perceived โties to Israel.โ Numerous programs broadcast on state-run television advance anti-Semitic messages.
Official government discrimination against Jews continues to be pervasive, fostering a threatening atmosphere for the approximately 20,000 member Jewish community,โ it said.
โDespite the June 2013 election of a new and purportedly moderate president [Hassan Rouhani], the already-poor religious freedom conditions in Iran continued to deteriorate, particularly for religious minorities, especially Bahaโis and Christian converts. Sufi and Sunni Muslims and dissenting Shiโa Muslims also faced harassment, arrests, and imprisonment,โ the commission said.
