#WhatsappPrivacy

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About

#WhatsappPrivacy is a hashtag that became popular in early 2021 used to share memes and react to WhatsApp's announced privacy policy changes, which many saw as being in violation of their privacy.

Origin

In early January, 2021, WhatsApp users began receiving an in-app notification asking them to accept a mandatory change to the privacy policy by February 8th that allows the app to share certain data with other Facebook apps (shown below). If users do not accept the policy by that date, they cannot use their accounts anymore according to the message.

On January 5th, @surya_nj tweeted,^[3] "If you are using something for free then you are the product #WhatsAppPrivacy" along with an image of the privacy policy change screen, representing the earliest use of the hashtag in relation to the privacy policy change (shown below). On January 6th, several news outlets began reporting on the change on January 6th, including WION^[1] and Mashable India.^[2]

Spread

More Twitter users began using the hashtag over the course of the day as news of WhatsApps' new privacy policy spread. On January 6th, @bhondumemer tweeted,^[4] "People rushing towards Telegram after new #WhatsappPrivacy update:" along with an image of many Indian people holding onto a moving train, garnering over 690 likes in 6 days (shown below, left). @KushalTripathi tweeted^[5] another meme the same day, garnering over 800 likes in a comparable span of time (shown below, right).

On January 7th, @vershaposts tweeted^[9] a meme referencing the situation, garnering over 680 likes in 5 days (shown below, left). The image was re-uploaded to /r/memes^[10] by /u/vapeshape on January 11th, garnering over 23,000 upvotes in a day. On the same day, Privacy International posted a meme to Twitter^[11] critiquing WhatsApp, garnering over 2,300 likes and 1,100 retweets in a comparable span of time (shown below, right). On January 8th, Independent^[6] reported on the change to Whatsapp's privacy policy.

On January 11th, WhatsApp tweeted^[8] "We want to address some rumors and be 100% clear we continue to protect your private messages with end-to-end encryption" along with a graphic showing exactly what was changing in a more clear way, garnering over 16,700 likes and 9,300 retweets in a day (shown below). Reception to the post was highly negative based on user comments, many of which accuse the developers of lying.

On January 12th, Independent^[7] published a piece claiming that WhatsApp's rival Telegram saw a 500% increase in traffic following the announcement. On the same day, /u/offender_defender _ posted a meme referencing the situation to /r/dankmemes,^[12] garnering over 49,000 upvotes in 14 hours (shown below).