Mark Zuckerberg plans to integrate Facebook’s messenger apps—Facebook Messenger, Instagram and WhatsApp—in a move that prompts questions about data privacy and antitrust.
According to The New York Times, the plan is to keep the services operating as stand-alone applications, but integrate the underlying technical infrastructure. Still in the early discussion phase, it is not quite clear how Facebook will profit from the integration, but it is likely that it could generate higher advertising revenue and reduce competition.
Facebook said in a statement: “We’re working on making more of our messaging products end-to-end encrypted and considering ways to make it easier to reach friends and family across networks.”
The plan—set to be completed in 2020—is to provide cross-communication between the platforms for the first time. The behind-the-scenes technology will change dramatically as thousands of developers reconfigure the apps at their core. While on the front-end, users will be able to transfer information easily and seamlessly among the platforms.
Though it’s hard to visualize a world where an Instagram DM system linked with WhatsApp makes that much of a difference, Zuckerberg is, begrudgingly, often right when it comes to communication technology.
Bibi Deitz, Coveteur
Facebook has been plagued with the scandal over the past two years following accusations of data breaching and manipulation. Zuckerberg assures that this plan will work in favor of data protection, as Facebook Messenger and Instagram Messages will follow suit of WhatsApp—the only app to use end-to-end encrycption. But, critics are not so sure.
There’s a world where Facebook Messenger and Instagram get upgraded to the default encryption of WhatsApp, but that probably isn’t happening. It’s too technically challenging and would cost Facebook access to lots of data.
Matthew Green, Cryptographer at John Hopkins University, WIRED
When a new user signs up for WhatsApp, they are required to provide their phone number. For Facebook, users must provide details of their true identity. The convergence may cause people to reconsider how much of their information to give up with their identity linked to their conversations. While an indelible identity could provide benefits to the user such as stronger anti-fraud protection, it will also provide Facebook with a gold mine of information.
Furthermore, a seamless user experience would encourage users to remain within the Facebook ecosystem and therefore weaken competing apps from Google and Apple. As reported by The New York Times, some employees found the announcement jarring, as it seems to go against the promises Zuckerberg made about keeping the apps’ independence when he acquired Instagram and WhatsApp in 2012 and 2014, respectively.
This has raised antitrust concerns and fears that Facebook will become a bonafide monopoly. Both the leaders of Instagram and WhatsApp left last year as a result of reported clashing, and now Zuckerberg is completely unobstructed in his domain.
This is why there should have been far more scrutiny during Facebook’s acquisitions of Instagram and WhatsApp, which now clearly seem like horizontal mergers that should have triggered antitrust scrutiny. Imagine how different the world would be if Facebook had to compete with Instagram and WhatsApp.
Representative Ro Khanna, Democrat of California, The New York Times
But, a monopolized messaging platform is not especially groundbreaking. Tencent-owned WeChat dominates the messaging space in China. While WhatsApp is heavily used in both South America and Europe. Furthermore, Apple and Google have already made moves to capitalize on their own built-in messaging infrastructure. Facebook’s new plan will allow the company to better compete by consolidating user information and offering marketers seamless communication with their audiences.
There are different expectations with different products. Any changes are bound to be controversial.
Beerud Sheth, founder and CEO of Gupshup, AdWeek
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