Skip to main content

No, Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg will not go to your privacy soirée, Iran

An Iranian court has summoned Mark Zuckerberg, the founder and CEO of Facebook, to answer privacy complaints surrounding Facebook-owned apps Instagram and WhatsApp.

Something tells us Zuck is going to steer clear of Iran for a while.

Zuckerberg isn’t compelled to comply with Iran’s demand, because the U.S. and Iran don’t have an extradition treaty. Other prominent American figures have successfully ignored summons from Iranian courts in recent years.

Iran called for a ban on Instagram last week. The country previously banned Facebook, WhatsApp, and YouTube, although senior government leaders in Iran regularly use those social sites.

Abdolsamad Khorramabadi, head of the Iran’s Committee on Internet Crimes, has called Zuckerberg an American Zionist (he’s not, in case you were wondering), and cited that as one of the reasons the country decided to block WhatsApp.

Both Instagram and WhatsApp remained accessible in the Iranian capital of Tehran on Tuesday, according to Sky News.

VentureBeat's mission is to be a digital town square for technical decision-makers to gain knowledge about transformative enterprise technology and transact. Learn More