I'm not sure this is at all accurate. Source: I'm in Saudi, and it's not working at the moment- unlike the other apps.<p>There's been a big deal made out of the lifting of the voip ban since it's been a pain in the ass for users for years, but they specifically stated that whatsapp and Viber are excluded (though Telegram is present somehow...). CITC, our local FCC equivalent, said that the the requirements laid out in the unblocking decision are 1: having a "clear mechanism for contact and cooperation in emergencies" (I'm guessing this is partially euphemism for intercept court orders and similar as well), 2: being open to removing illegal content, 3: having a clear and robust data protection system in place for users, and 4: making it possible to call emergency numbers [1, Arabic].<p>Obviously a lot of these can be technically impossible like the one about being able to call emergency numbers, and for those with e2e encryption a lot of the content requirements are impossible too. But hey, baby steps I guess- the telecoms are livid about the lost revenue stream, and people no longer have to use VPNs for friggin' Facetime to work.<p>[1] <a href="https://sabq.org/%D8%B1%D9%81%D8%B9-%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%AD%D8%AC%D8%A8-%D8%B9%D9%86-%D8%AA%D8%B7%D8%A8%D9%8A%D9%82%D8%A7%D8%AA-%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%85%D9%83%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%85%D8%A7%D8%AA-%D9%85%D9%86%D8%AA%D8%B5%D9%81-%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%84%D9%8A%D9%84-%D9%88%D8%A7%D8%A8%D9%88%D8%AD%D9%8A%D9%85%D8%AF-%D9%84%D9%80-%D8%B3%D8%A8%D9%82-%D9%87%D8%B0%D9%87-%D9%87%D9%8A-%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%85%D8%AA%D8%B7%D9%84%D8%A8%D8%A7%D8%AA-%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%AA%D9%86%D8%B8%D9%8A%D9%85%D9%8A%D8%A9" rel="nofollow">https://sabq.org/%D8%B1%D9%81%D8%B9-%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%AD%D8%AC...</a>