
What's wrong with WhatsApp - longdefeat
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2020/jul/02/whatsapp-groups-conspiracy-theories-disinformation-democracy
======
jaspax
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.

~~~
raspyberr
Wasn't The Guardian the one to publish Snowden's reveals? The ones that could
have only been passed on with tech that WhatsApp uses i.e. encryption.

~~~
cyjyar2
Since publishing the Snowden files in 2013, TG has significantly changed
course and crippled their investigative branch, as detailed here:

[https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2019-09-11-how-
the-u...](https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2019-09-11-how-the-uk-
security-services-neutralised-the-countrys-leading-liberal-newspaper/)

In essence they got rid of their nosey investigate journalists and replaced
them with noisy columnists.

------
blackoil
In India, WhatsApp is used to hilt by political parties. Ruling party owns one
of the largest digital network with 100s of thousands of such groups with 10s
of millions of members. These groups are used to circulate all kinds of fake
news, Islamophobic posts, even hyper local fake posts which have resulted in
lynching of innocents by the mob. These posts then spill over to non political
groups and are compounded by the fact that media is corrupt and silo-ed into
factions.

This a genuine problem impacting impacting both democracy and the social
fabric.

~~~
kentrado
Democracy is two wolves and one sheep deciding what's for dinner.

------
totalZero

      end-to-end encryption makes it immune to surveillance
    

This is absolutely, 100% false. Encryption is fallible. Even if the encryption
scheme is unbreakable, end-to-end encryption is no more secure than its weaker
end.

Not to mention that many people use Google to back up all of their WhatsApp
messages, and we know that Google has given the federal government a great
amount of access to its data in the past.

------
oehtXRwMkIs
I personally really like Reuter's stance on WhatsApp, which is that it's not
as secure as Signal, so they don't use it anymore. Meanwhile the Guardian is
publishing anti-encryption articles and still offering only SecureDrop
(overkill and inconvenient for a conversation), encrypted email, and snail
mail for anonymous tips and such.

------
np_tedious
Only scanned it, but it looks like everything the article says about Whatsapp
(spread of misinformation, coordination of violence) would still fit if you
replaced Whatsapp with "SMS" or "text messages".

