The WhatsApp Situation
4 minutes read | 813 words
This post is inspired by WhatsApp’s updated Terms of Service on 4th Jaunary 2020
tl;dr
Facebook acquired WhatsApp in 2014 claiming that the acquisition is out of ambitions leading to the the improvement of the whole web, and promising that WhatsApp will continue to function independently of Facebook and will never share user data with Facebook. (A lie). In 2017, Acton quit Facebook citing disputes over privacy and monetization of WhatsApp. He went on to create Signal, a direct competitor to WhatsApp. (Red flag). In 2018, Koum announced his exit from Facebook over disputes over Facebook’s attempts to weaken the encryption employed by WhatsApp. (Red flag). Facebook is now operating WhatsApp in a direction completely divorced from the principles WhatsApp was founded on, simply exploiting the mindshare people have for the brand WhatsApp.