WhatsApp postpones the rollout of new terms and conditions until May 15th.
WhatsApp has been experiencing some pretty hectic days due to the entry into force of its new Terms and Conditions from February 8th, causing many people to choose to move to messaging alternatives considered safer and more respectful of privacy. This benefited especially Telegram and Signal, although some more alternatives, such as Threema, have also received some new users.
In fact, Signal has encountered technical problems yesterday given the high demand, finally expanding its capacity with the entry of new servers in operation, as announced a few hours ago.
We have been adding new servers and extra capacity at a record pace every single day this week nonstop, but today exceeded even our most optimistic projections. Millions upon millions of new users are sending a message that privacy matters. We appreciate your patience.
— Signal (@signalapp) January 15, 2021
The rollout of the new WhatsApp Terms and Conditions has also caused conflicts in some territories, which in the case of India, the authorities have initiated a legal procedure about the new terms and the differences between them and those that will apply in European territory.
The authorities in India have initiated legal proceedings regarding the new terms and the differences between them and those that will be applied in Europe. It has not helped that the platform, owned by Facebook Inc., has wanted to get away with explaining that the content of the messages is still protected by end-to-end encryption, and that in practice nothing will change, something that does not convince many users.
The controversy has come at a time when Apple has launched the privacy labels in its App Store, and the comparison of data obtained by Facebook apps against others, even from prestigious publications such as Forbes, the long history of problems and scandals related to Facebook privacy, as well as a stage in which the main technological companies are being questioned given their high power, which some see as the dictators of the 21st century.
Users are also expressing themselves on social networks, noting that WhatsApp is afraid of all the commotion, having even published advertisements in print media in India, and from WhatsApp want the waters to return to their course by postponing the entry into force of their new conditions.
A new date for the new conditions to take effect has arrived
The new date is now May 15th, according to a post on their official blog. With this they want to give time for users to calmly review the new conditions, having now a longer period ahead, to try to avoid what they understand from the platform as a confusion, although the way to proceed, in ultimatum plan, has not helped much precisely.
However, those users who have already accepted the new Terms and Conditions will no longer have the possibility of revoking them, according to the FAQs published by WABetaInfo.