WhatsApp Hits the Ball Due to Its New Feature

WhatsApp, the most popular messaging application today, launched the instant messaging feature last year. Operating under the umbrella of Meta, the application announced a new update for this feature with its announcement today. With this update, timed messages can be set as default in all new chats started.

Messages to newly launched chats with this update 24 hours, 7 days and 90 days can be limited. But this new feature of WhatsApp brought some concerns with it. One of these concerns was voiced by child rights activists. Groups that strive to protect children’s rights claimed that with this change, detection of abuse will become more difficult.

“Evidence can be quickly erased”

The UK’s National Association for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (NSPCC) described the new update of WhatsApp as a ‘badly thought out step’. Andy Burrows, head of child safety online policy at the NSPCC, said the feature will enable criminals to quickly delete evidence of child abuse, enabling law enforcement to charge offenders and will make it more difficult to protect children. expressed.

NSPCC also stated that this feature will increase the severity if it comes to Instagram or Facebook, which are other platforms of Meta. In the current situation, a harasser on Instagram can be detected more easily than WhatsApp due to the security difference, while the same protection and feature comes to Instagram. worse scenarios may occur. Finally, Burrows stated that the combination of end-to-end encryption and lost messages features would not pass the risk assessment process in the UK.

Meta announced in November that the end-to-end encryption feature will be available in 2023. Meta’s head of security, Antigone Davis, said the company’s unencrypted data, account information, and reports from users can detect harassment had explained.