What an article. It turns out that, according to the Guardian, what's wrong with WhatsApp is exactly the best features of WhatsApp, namely the fact that messages are encrypted and can't be snooped on and that you can only send messages to contacts. These things make it hard for governments to snoop on your messages, censor them, and spread official propaganda in their place. Apparently these are all bad things, and we should move back to more public platforms where our conversations can be properly monitored.
The article uses the example of Covid misinformation spreading virally on WA, and while it's true that the information being spread is false (in the examples that they give), it's appalling that their first instinct is to bewail the fact that people's private communications cannot be surveilled and suppressed. This article literally and unironically contains the sentence: "But what makes WhatsApp potentially more dangerous than public social media are the higher levels of trust and honesty that are often present in private groups."
Yes, trust and honesty. That is what's wrong with WhatsApp.
The article uses the example of Covid misinformation spreading virally on WA, and while it's true that the information being spread is false (in the examples that they give), it's appalling that their first instinct is to bewail the fact that people's private communications cannot be surveilled and suppressed. This article literally and unironically contains the sentence: "But what makes WhatsApp potentially more dangerous than public social media are the higher levels of trust and honesty that are often present in private groups."
Yes, trust and honesty. That is what's wrong with WhatsApp.