People carry the body of a Hezbollah fighter during his funeral in Beirut's predominantly Shiite Muslim southern suburb, on Aug. 10, 2023 after he was killed the previous day amid clashes between Hezbollah and residents of the Christian town of Kahaleh. (Credit: Joao Sousa/L'Orient Today)
BEIRUT — Rana Sahili, Hezbollah's media spokesperson, was banned from WhatsApp on Sunday, she confirmed to L'Orient Today on Tuesday.
Sahili told L'Orient Today that on Sunday she received a notification from WhatsApp that she was being banned.
She added that she considers the alleged ban "a repression of the freedom of expression from the US, which owns WhatsApp."
"All I am doing is communicating the voice of Hezbollah to the people as opposed to doing a terrorist act," she said, adding that she would be moving her communications to Telegram.
WhatsApp is owned by Meta, the company formerly known as Facebook.
Sahili added that about a month ago, a number of Hezbollah MPs were banned from WhatsApp. She could not confirm who those MPs are.
According to WhatsApp's terms and conditions, the application "may ban accounts if we believe the account activity is in violation of our Terms of Service. Per our Terms of Service, we may retain the right to ban the user without notification."