WhatsApp’s new privacy policy has received a lot of criticism and competitors haven’t shied away from making the most of the opportunity. Signal recently took a dig at parent company Facebook for allegedly blocking Instagram ads that revealed the vast amounts of data the platform collects about us. Telegram isn’t pulling punches either, mercilessly savaging WhatsApp on Twitter (see above image). WhatsApp tried to fight back but its attempt to dunk on Telegram simply backfired.
WhatsApp’s Twitter account made use of the uncomfortable nightclub girl meme to point out how Telegram users don’t know the service is not end-to-end encrypted by default, which is indeed true. Telegram was unfazed, however, and responded by pointing out how WhatsApp’s iCloud and Google Drive backups aren’t end-to-end encrypted (it’s in the works). This has reportedly caused WhatsApp chats to leak in the past.
.@WhatsApp Our users know how things work, and have the open source apps to PROVE it. You… talk to the screenshot 🤚 it says you’re lying. pic.twitter.com/aSUotBGWh0
— Telegram Messenger (@telegram) May 15, 2021
Telegram also took the opportunity to gloat about how its apps are open-source and support reproducible builds. It’s been a couple of days since Telegram’s burn and WhatsApp hasn’t responded yet —unsurprising since it’s impossible to refute these facts.
The Facebook-owned company tried to casually tweet about the implementation of the new privacy policy recently, but you can see from the replies that it didn’t go down at all well with Twitter users. An aggressive social media strategy can sometimes work well, but when the Twitterverse overwhelming sides against you, it’s probably time to try a different approach.
