Iran lifts WhatsApp ban, but users hardly feel a change

An Iranian man looks at his mobile phone after the ban on WhatsApp and Google Play was lifted, in Tehran, Iran. — Reuters

TEHRAN: Ardavan Yousefi has gotten so used to life under Iran’s sweeping Internet restrictions that for him, a recent decision to lift a ban on messaging service WhatsApp went virtually unnoticed.

“Oh wow, is it really removed now?” Yousefi, a cafe owner from the capital Tehran, said of the two-year ban on the popular application.