Henna VirkkunenWe designated today WhatsApp as Very Large Online Platform under the #DigitalServicesAct, as its ‘Channels’ feature reaches the designation threshold of at least 45 million users in the EU.
Learn more: https://link.europa.eu/YCP7VK
Nick44 🇪🇺 🇮🇹
Moreno Colaiacovo 🇪🇺@HennaVirkkunen @Nick44 I wish it were that easy! There are lots of good alternatives to WhatsApp, but the network effect is so powerful.. makes migration very difficult. At least for me! I have Signal and Matrix on my phone, but all my contacts use WhatsApp
Buntstift von M@emmecola @HennaVirkkunen @Nick44 Your contacts can still send SMS or call you. I had the same and when leaving WhatsApp. My friends joined me on Signal or used SMS. Thats it. Actually it‘s a kind of lazy excuse most people use.
@HennaVirkkunen @Nick44 @buntstiftvonm I don't think I'm lazy. I have used alternative browsers, email/cloud providers, search engines, office suites, social networks, I even tried alternative mobile OS.. But with WhatsApp it's different, by switching to other apps you impose a change of behaviour to your friends and relatives
@emmecola @HennaVirkkunen @Nick44 I did’t want to say you are lazy. Actually you did even more than me. I thought the excuse was. The point of view to expose you to your friends is new to me. Thanks for that. I did not see any danger there. Is there one? What might happen?
@HennaVirkkunen @Nick44 @buntstiftvonm Well there is no real danger, I don't think people will stop writing to me because they have to download yet another app (I hope not! 😅). But I don't like forcing other people to change their habits only to communicate with me, maybe even asking them to spend money (while a message via WA is free). I don't know, perhaps I'm overthinking it 🙂
@emmecola @HennaVirkkunen @Nick44 I think it‘s valuable to think like that. Unfortunately, it stifles change in a fear of imposing supposed inconvenience. Especially as Signal is at no charge and paying with your data may not charge money but it‘s not for free. But still I fully underdtand your concerns.
axel.@buntstiftvonm @emmecola @HennaVirkkunen @Nick44 The problem is not single contacts imho but group chats that organize local communities. If you single-handedly move out of WhatsApp, you exclude yourself from that community’s communication.
@axeln @emmecola @HennaVirkkunen @Nick44 True. That‘s tricky. Is the group crucial for you? Keep only this group and move the rest. Does WhatsApp need access to your contacts, your location etc? And the more people are moving away the less „mandatory“ would WhatsApp be for groups. Still it seems like a lazy excuse to do nothing and to justify even though you know better.
@axeln @HennaVirkkunen @Nick44 @buntstiftvonm Maybe this recent news will serve as an additional motivation for lazy WhatsApp users..
Steve Herman (@[email protected])
WhatsApp can access virtually all of it 3 billion users’ purportedly ‘private’ communications,” according to a lawsuit filed against Meta. https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/72183413/1/dawson-v-meta-platforms-inc/