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WhatsApp has launched a serious recent update to let people chat even amid web shutdowns.
The brand new tool lets people stay online using proxy servers, which is able to allow them to get across the sorts of web shutdowns or blocks which might be instituted by some governments.
WhatsApp said it launched the feature in response to a flurry of world shutdowns, including in Iran. Those blocks “deny people’s human rights and cut people off from receiving urgent help”, the corporate said in its announcement.
The corporate said that its “wish for 2023 is that these web shutdowns never occur”. But it surely resolved so as to add the feature “in case these shutdowns proceed”, it said.
It’s built into WhatsApp‘s settings and can allow users to enter the name of a proxy server and use it to hook up with the web.
Proxy servers work as alternative gateways between a user and the web when traditional connection methods and servers have been shut down or cut off – providing the obligatory connection between a user and the web site or service they want to access.
WhatsApp noted that many have been arrange by volunteers and organisations around the globe to assist people “communicate freely”, and the corporate may even offer guidance to people on methods to arrange a proxy so as to help others.
The feature should now be available throughout the settings menu for everybody using the most recent version of the app, WhatsApp said.
“Connecting via proxy maintains the identical high level of privacy and security that WhatsApp provides,” WhatsApp said in a blog post.
“Your personal messages will still be protected by end-to-end encryption – ensuring they stay between you and the person you’re communicating with and will not be visible to anyone in between, not the proxy servers, WhatsApp, or Meta.
“Our wish for 2023 is that these web shutdowns never occur.
“Disruptions like we’ve seen in Iran for months on end deny people’s human rights and cut people off from receiving urgent help.
“Though in case these shutdowns proceed, we hope this solution helps people wherever there’s a necessity for secure and reliable communication.”
Additional reporting by Press Association
