Meta’s messaging and calling app · www.whatsapp.com
China has blocked WhatsApp since 2017 and Russia since February 2026. Elsewhere the fight is often over calls: the UAE and Saudi Arabia have long let its messages through but restricted its voice and video calls.
Every day we open WhatsApp from inside 24 countries, mostly over home broadband, and record
where it’s blocked, since when and how.
3 of 24tested countries with a confirmed block of WhatsApp
Blocked in China and Russia, and on some networks in Iran. 24 of 24 results confirmed in the last 48 hours.
Blocked means the networks we test there failed to open www.whatsapp.com, twice, while it opened elsewhere.
“Turned away by the site” means WhatsApp itself refused visitors from that country.
* First observed on this date: the block may be older. Older results are excluded from current totals.
Background
Where WhatsApp is restricted, and why
China’s censors began blocking WhatsApp in July 2017, starting with photos and videos, and by late September, the month before a Communist Party congress, text messages were blocked too. Russia took longer. WhatsApp escaped the 2022 ban on Meta’s Facebook and Instagram, but Roskomnadzor began restricting it in August 2025, citing fraud and terrorism, widened the restrictions in October and blocked the service in February 2026, as the authorities pushed Russians towards Max, a state-backed messenger.
In the Gulf the fight is over calls, not chats. The UAE lets only licensed operators, and apps they partner with or its regulator approves, carry internet calls, and in May 2026 WhatsApp calling was still restricted there while messages worked. Saudi Arabia left WhatsApp out when it reopened internet calling in September 2017. Egypt has long banned calls through apps such as WhatsApp too; its regulator promised in late 2024 to lift the ban, but Freedom House found it still in place in mid-2025.
Iran blocked WhatsApp in September 2022, during nationwide protests, and lifted the ban in December 2024. The reprieve was short. WhatsApp was blocked on some networks around the June 2025 war with Israel, and when Iran restored international internet access in May 2026, after 88 days of near-total isolation, an internet monitoring group reported that WhatsApp was restricted again and could be reached only with a workaround.
Its end-to-end encryption has also put WhatsApp at odds with democracies. Brazilian judges blocked it nationwide three times between December 2015 and July 2016 when it didn’t hand over user data it said it didn’t have. Its head said in April 2023 that it would rather be blocked in the UK than weaken encryption, and in April 2024 it told India’s Delhi High Court it would leave rather than break encryption to trace a message’s first sender.
Key dates
Iran restores international internet access after 88 days of near-total isolation, with WhatsApp restricted and reachable only with a workaround.
The Kremlin confirms that Roskomnadzor is blocking WhatsApp; WhatsApp says Russia is trying to isolate over 100 million users.
Roskomnadzor begins restricting WhatsApp and Telegram across Russia, citing fraud and terrorism.
Iran lifts the ban on WhatsApp it imposed during the protests of September 2022.
China blocks WhatsApp text messages, after cutting off photos and videos for a few weeks in July 2017.
A Rio de Janeiro judge orders WhatsApp blocked across Brazil, the third such order since December 2015; Brazil’s chief justice lifts it within hours.
Get past a block
WhatsApp blocked where you are?
A VPN connects you through a server in another country, so a local block on WhatsApp no longer applies. Where VPNs themselves are blocked, you need one that can disguise its traffic.
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History
Changes for WhatsApp
No confirmed changes since monitoring began on 29 Sep 2026. When a block appears or lifts, and a re-check on several machines agrees, it shows up here.
Method
How we test
Test machines on the two biggest home-internet providers in most countries open the homepage every day.
A failure counts only when it happens twice on the same network, while the site opens from other countries.
A change is published only after re-checks a few hours later and again the next day, on several machines per provider, confirm it. It’s dated from the first sighting.
Test machines caught getting around blocks, through a VPN or a filter-dodging tool, are set aside.
We test websites, mostly over home broadband. Apps, calls and mobile networks can behave differently.
China has blocked it since 2017 and Russia since February 2026. Iran lifted a two-year ban in December 2024, but WhatsApp was restricted there again when international access returned in May 2026. The UAE and Saudi Arabia have long restricted WhatsApp’s voice and video calls while letting its messages through.
Why Do Some Countries Block WhatsApp Calls but Not Messages?
Because they license internet calling separately. In the UAE only licensed operators and apps they partner with or the regulator approves may carry calls. Saudi Arabia reopened internet calling in 2017 only for apps that met its rules and left WhatsApp out; in 2013 its regulator had warned that WhatsApp, Viber and Skype would be barred without a monitoring server.
Is WhatsApp Banned in Iran?
Iran blocked WhatsApp on 21 September 2022, during nationwide protests, and lifted the ban on 24 December 2024. It was blocked on some networks again around the June 2025 war with Israel, and when international internet access returned in May 2026 after months of shutdowns, an internet monitoring group reported WhatsApp restricted and reachable only with a workaround.
