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Here in the Netherlands, WhatsApp has the defacto communication tool. Everyone is expected to have it installed, not just by friends but also municipals and com
by ghusto 21d ago
Here in the Netherlands, WhatsApp has the defacto communication tool. Everyone is expected to have it installed, not just by friends but also municipals and companies. Same level as having an e-mail address.
It's a missed opportunity for the digital soverignty the EU says it so badly needs. The code for a government backed WhatsApp competitor is there, in multiple instances even. Launch a WhatsApp clone and put all governement communication through it so everyone has to have it installed, and you have an instant EU-wide userbase. From there, people will naturally start to use it between themselves.
- wldcordeiro 21d agoReminds me of what Brasil did with Pix which of course the outside payment processors have been trying to undo.
- toomuchtodo 21d agoDo you think if government accounts were on Signal, people would install it?
- Fnoord 21d agoSignal is an improvement, but not federated.
- azangru 21d agoSignal requires a mobile phone for an account; so it's not entirely web-friendly. Plus, can you read what's posted to signal without an account?
- Vinnl 21d agoFor now: https://aboutsignal.com/news/signal-login-registration-without-a-phone-number/ https://aboutsignal.com/news/signal-login-registration-witho...
- baxtr 21d agoI think my main communication is probably the last tool that I want to be government backed tbh.
- valleyer 21d agoEven if it's communication/announcements from the government? I too am constantly frustrated that official communications from governments happen on Twitter or Facebook.
- r_lee 21d agoare those your "main communication" tools?
- thevinter 21d agoCommunications/announcements from the government can easily be posted on the government's website or, if really needed, sent as an SMS
- iamnothere 21d agoMy local government still lets you sign up for email notifications about services and local alerts. It’s great!
- vasco 21d agoToo expensive, bad idea.
- veeti 21d agoEurocrats could never in a million years make it happen. For starters, every country would insist on having its own ChatsApp, with roll out taking years. Then, to satisfy strict security and compliance regulations it would be restricted to devices passing Google & Apple hardware attestation checks. And once everyone is finally forced to be on board, any confidentiality guarantees can go out the window to catch pedos and terrorists. It's for the best.
- yitchelle 21d agoSo true. Even within a country, different states would argue for their own version of it. (Looking at you, Bavaria)
- KPGv2 21d agoMastodon instances would be a drop-in replacement, no? Federated instances and as a bonus, it solves the biggest problem of new users not knowing which server to join. Just join your local government's if you don't know of another.
- inigyou 20d agoYou speak as if these are simple operations, and technically they are but socially they are not.
- Parodper 21d agoFunny, it has already happened: https://digital-markets-act.ec.europa.eu/developer-portal/messaging-interoperability_en https://digital-markets-act.ec.europa.eu/developer-portal/me...
- ghusto 19d ago> For starters, every country would insist on having its own ChatsApp Fine, let's say the Netherlands should do it for their own citizens only (but in a broad way to keep the door open for EU adoption) > to satisfy strict security and compliance regulations it would be restricted to devices passing Google & Apple hardware attestation checks Banking apps are already restricted to locked Android and iOS devices, and they are all but mandatory, unless you want a very difficult life. > And once everyone is finally forced to be on board, any confidentiality guarantees can go out the window to catch pedos and terrorists I don't see how. We all already have the Digid app?
- inigyou 21d agoThere is a carrier neutral WhatsApp, called SMS.
- nujabe 21d agoNot even remotely close.
- prmoustache 21d agoFor natural disaster emergency annoucememt it is more reliable than whatsapp.
- gsich 21d agoCell Broadcast yes, SMS no.
- KellyCriterion 21d agoIsnt the one just "mass usage" of the other? Like Cell Broadcast just duplicates the SMS on carrier level?
- inexcf 21d agoNah, Cell Broadcast has a lot less overhead since it does not have to do any routing or delivery confirmation and such. The load does not scale based on recipients which makes it far more reliable during an emergency.
- KellyCriterion 19d agoSorry, maybe I did "carrier replication" wrong - I used the word in a sense of "it is duplicated at the local cell by the towers", instead of getting "fed with 1mio receivers in region X by the telco servercentral HQ" Im wrong, I guess?
- 20d ago
- alex1138 21d agoWhich is one of the many many reasons Zuckerberg needs to be investigated the hell out of for every single thing he does I grant you 2014 is 12 years ago now and you could plausibly argue it was their doing to grow network effects but I'm pretty sure WA had that infrastructure already in place - Acton, Koum et al already did the ground work to get carriers to... whatever it is Zuckerberg stole it like he steals everything
- inemesitaffia 21d agoPeople insisted then that paying tens of Instagram for WhatsApp was too much.
- alex1138 20d agoI have no idea. The point is they took competition out back, and shot it Whether that's 'too much' depends on your view of it I'm tired of people calling them 'savvy acquisitions'. Not when Zuck's on record as saying 'Instagram can hurt us'
- nilslindemann 21d agoWhy not just a website?
- mr_mitm 21d agoHard to keep up with lots of sites. At least provide a common interface, like an atom feed.
- inglor_cz 21d agoThe problem is that an EU-mandated digital communicating tool would look like the Minitel. Anyone remembering the French minitel?
- pjc50 21d agoI think it was quite good for the 1980s, it just got stuck there.
- inglor_cz 21d agoTouché. Getting stuck with an obsolete service/protocol for decades is a nightmare, even if it is just ye olde user inertia. If it is mandated by law or pushed by the government, it becomes nearly impossible to update. In this, I trust the government way less than either the open source movement or the actual Silicon Valley. Both of the latter are much better at iterating of their designs when a new idea comes along.
- inigyou 20d agoThat's the fate of all government-backed systems as well as all decentralised systems. The former can't evolve because of extreme bureaucracy and the latter can't evolve because of incompatibility trauma and fragmentation. But in either case we do have the ability to make a new system every 10 years.
- Parodper 20d agoPeople seemed to like it being stuck in the 1980s.
- account42 21d agoThe EU should rather embrace open standards rather than building a closed competitor here. We already have XMPP and Matrix, all that's required is for public institutions to use them.
- inigyou 20d agoFor what purpose? All this discussion about open alternatives to closed systems always leaves out what the purpose is. For broadcasting public information that is not time critical, I think they should use HTTP and HTML.
- Vinnl 21d agoIt is ubiquitous, but as a Dutchie who's never had WhatsApp, it is not quite at the level of an email address yet, luckily.
- dataengineer56 20d ago> It's a missed opportunity for the digital soverignty the EU says it so badly needs. The code for a government backed WhatsApp competitor is there, in multiple instances even. Launch a WhatsApp clone and put all governement communication through it so everyone has to have it installed, and you have an instant EU-wide userbase. From there, people will naturally start to use it between themselves. I think you have completely misjudged how much the majority of people would not want to use an EU-controlled chat app.