ERBIL, Kurdistan — Popular messaging application Viber is introducing a new Sorani Kurdish language interface to the public, the company’s CEO told Rudaw.
“It is the 42nd language available in Viber,” French entrepreneur and Viber CEO Djamel Agaoua told Rudaw’s Rebaz Ali in an interview on Friday. “We are very proud and happy to launch the service for the people in Kurdistan”
Agaoua said the introduction of Kurdish is a response to the large number of Viber users in the Kurdistan Region, claiming that roughly 60-65 percent of people in the territory use the service.
In terms of the linguistic specificities of Kurdish, the CEO said they faced no difficulties adding the system, because of their local partner. “Korek Telecom was precious in this partnership to make sure that we were using the right words,” he said.
Privacy has become a major concern for users of social media platforms, with applications like Whatsapp coming under fire in recent months for changes to their information policies.
Agaoua says they collect a minimum amount of data and secure their users because chatting via Viber is end-to-end encrypted. “No one at Viber, including me, can access the content of the chat or the call.”
“The other messaging apps that you can find on the markets are not safe for you to use… There are apps that are dangerous to use because they don’t have moderation systems and are open to other users in the world which is not very good,” said Agaoua. “So, if you care about privacy and safety, Viber is basically the best option.”
While most messaging apps have ramped up their online security in recent years and introduced back-to-back encryption, according to the AVG Technologies, not all platforms are equally secure. The antivirus software places the messaging application Signal at the top of its list for security.
