I don't think so. The news about WhatsApp supposed backdoor was published on the 13th: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/jan/13/whatsapp-... and the uptick of UAE users began around the 15th and the 16th: https://metrics.torproject.org/userstats-relay-country.html?... Wouldn't there have been a more direct correlation between the 13th and the numbers of users?