Wave of WhatsApp suspensions sweeps across Israel, raising concerns of blocked accounts

A wave of WhatsApp account suspensions across Israel over the weekend caused widespread concern among users. The Israel Internet Association advised users to back up important information due to the risk of account suspension. Yonatan Ben-Horin of the Safe Internet Hotline noted that unlike typical reports of harmful content, this wave involved accounts suspended after sending innocent messages to businesses or known contacts. He stated, "What happened over the weekend was different. We started receiving small but steady reports of people whose accounts had been suspended after sending an entirely innocent message to a business or someone they wanted to contact." The association contacted Meta, WhatsApp's parent company, to report the issue and collect affected account numbers, but has not yet received a response. Ben-Horin emphasized the importance of maintaining independent backups of information stored on WhatsApp.