WhatsApp says it gave government the boot for selling your private data

WhatsApp appears to have booted the government’s communication app, GovChat, off its platform because it is concerned that user data is not secure and could be sold to third parties.

However, chief executive of GovChat Eldrid Jordaan denied allegations that the country’s official citizen-government platform had breached any of WhatsApp’s policies.

The spat between WhatsApp and GovChat, as well as another government communication platform, Let’s Talk, got ugly, with a complaint laid with the Competition Commission accusing WhatsApp – part of the massive Meta Group, which also owns Facebook and other big media platforms – of abuse of dominance after it threatened to remove GovChat over what it described as compliance issues.

According to Jordaan, after two years of investigation, the Competition Commission found WhatsApp and Facebook to be in violation of competition laws and the commission regulator established that GovChat did not break any terms and conditions.

“We definitely disagree, the Competition Commission has come out in favour of GovChat and supported the platform as an essential service, specifically enabling economic vulnerable South Africans to access social relief grant and Covid-related services,” he said.

“Facebook has breached data laws in South Africa and all over the world and the commission has proven at a prima facie case level that Facebook’s terms of conditions are anti-competitive.”

However, Meta Platforms said there was also no evidence that WhatsApp had tried to exclude any firm from the market or engaged in anticompetitive conduct.

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A WhatsApp spokesperson said the organisation worked with GovChat in compliance with internationally recognised regulatory standards to provide this service and GovChat had “repeatedly refused” to comply with their policies, which were designed to protect citizens and their information.

“GovChat preferred to prioritise its own commercial interests over the public,” the spokesperson said.

“We will continue to defend WhatsApp from abuse and protect our users.”

In previous interviews, Jordaan had said GovChat “pays its bills” through selling user data to third parties, although he claimed this was “anonymised”.

Selling of user data from the WhatsApp platform is strictly prohibited by its terms and conditions which, Meta maintains, were set up to protect users and their information.

The commission alleged that Facebook enforced exclusionary terms and conditions regulating access to the WhatsApp Business application programming interface (API) by restricting the use of data. Jordaan said this was not new for Facebook and WhatsApp, and the media giants wanted to be in control of data.

He said Facebook was “slammed” with fines in various parts of the world and regulators have proven their overuse and abuse of their market dominance.

“This is a data war and Facebook wants to be in full control of data. They have has a serious case to answer, not just in SA.”

Jordaan said Facebook and WhatsApp’s conduct was concerning, reflecting unprofessionalism and it was against the success of other services.

“They tried going directly to government departments after they were part of the launch, where their representatives made it publicly clear that GovChat was the first platform in the world to bring government as a citizen engagement platform on the WhatsApp Business API,” he said.

“Years later, because of its rich success, they now want to bury the platform by making up those allegations.”

– lungas@citizen.co.za