It gets even more fun on WhatsApp. Large chat services are required by the EU to open their network to smaller competitors. The WhatsApp community (2 billion people, 12.5 million in the Netherlands) you can soon also be reached via smaller chat services such as Signal.
The Digital Markets Act, concluded last week in Brussels, states that large messaging services must be ‘interoperable’. That’s a small sentence with huge consequences.
According to that law, ‘Apping’ will work like e-mail and SMS: it doesn’t matter which provider or e-mail service you use – everyone can reach everyone. So you do not necessarily have to install the software from Meta (parent company of WhatsApp, Instagram and Facebook) to be able to app with the football team, choir or family.
Not a bad idea, because WhatsApp has a knack for moving the privacy conditions a little further towards Facebook. You have to swallow that, unless you can also choose another app to communicate with WhatsApp friends.
One chat app for all, that would make life a bit clearer. I now use Signal for intimates, WhatsApp for groups and iMessage for the family. Telegram, Teams, LinkedIn, Snapchat and Facebook Messenger are there for the changing contacts.
They are all closed networks, each with their own inbox. The EU wants to break open these ‘silos’ and is interfering with the strategy of tech companies. They want to keep users to themselves. That applies to WhatsApp, but also to Apple. Chat service iMessage (1.3 billion users) only works on Apple’s own hardware.
Whatsapp without WhatsApp, iMessage without iMessage. But how? These networks use proprietary methods to encrypt messages. The (temporary) encryption keys are only in the possession of the users to prevent outsiders from reading along. Security experts predict the app ocalypse: linking two encrypted networks together without breaking encryption, That is not possible†
European law is not yet generous with details, but logically chat services should joint standard should use. In the stone chat age – when MSN, Yahoo Messenger and ICQ still ruled – an overarching technique, jabber, the networks closer together. And you could display ‘strange’ apps from other services with a different color. For example, Apple shows text messages in iMessage in green, instead of blue.
Networks must not work together at the expense of your privacy – that requires restrictions on the exchange of identities and telephone numbers. whatsapp is worried about spreading fake news, hate speech and spam as soon as it has to allow other services. On the other hand: Meta wants to link WhatsApp, Instagram and Facebook Messenger itself. Apparently it’s not impossible.
Step by step, if it is up to the EU, the boundaries between chat services are disappearing: first for text messages, then photos and videos and then group conversations. Smaller chat services do not have to open their networks.
The EU does not care about technical limitations in the current infrastructure and current revenue models. It is about the principle: interoperabilityso freedom of choice. This principled approach is reminiscent of the EU’s approach to roaming charges in the telecom sector. Until 2017, mobile providers created enormous financial barriers if you used data abroad. They had to, was the excuse. Until a law was passed that prohibited providers from asking for extra money. And one day the borders were gone.
Marc Hijink writes about technology here. Twitter: @MarcHijinkNRC
A version of this article also appeared in NRC on the morning of March 30, 2022