Popular messaging app to face sanctions 'before Ramadan' following similar action against rival Viber
Messaging app WhatsApp has an estimated 250m users worldwide
Messaging app WhatsApp is the latest social networking service to face the wrath of the Saudi Arabian government, and could be blocked in the country within weeks.
Negotiations between WhatsApp and Saudi Arabia's Communications and Information Technology Commission (CITC) have broken down, according to the body's governor Abdullah Al-Darrab.
"We have been communicating with WhatsApp and other similar communication platforms to get them to co-operate and comply with the Saudi telecom providers, however nothing has come of this communication yet," he told Arab News.
"We will take punitive action against these applications and services if they do not comply with the regulations," added Al-Darrab, suggesting that a WhatsApp block is "highly likely before Ramadan" – which starts on 9 July.
The telecoms regulator is cracking down on social apps, having barred Voice-over-IP and messaging app Viber from being used in Saudi Arabiaearlier in June.
The CITC is also training its sights on Skype and Tango for failing to "comply with existing regulations" in the country.
These VoIP and messaging apps are popular globally: WhatsApp has an estimated 250m users worldwide, Viber has 200m, Tango 120m and Skype more than 280m when it last announced figures in October 2012.
In the west, debate about the disruptive potential of these apps focuses on their effect on the businesses of traditional mobile operators, as customers make fewer voice calls and send less text messages.
In April 2013, analyst Informa Telecoms & Media claimed that daily messaging traffic from such apps has already overtaken SMS, and will double it by the end of 2013: 41bn and 19.5bn daily messages respectively.
In Saudi Arabia, the CITC's concern is more about the challenges of monitoring the traffic on this new wave of apps. In 2010, the body threatened to block BlackBerry Messenger for similar reasons, beforereprieving the service after Research In Motion reached a compromise deal.
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