@simon To be honest, the fact that we now have this power is extremely scary, and I don't think we're seeing the ramifications just yet.

Tech companies will soon have the ability to scan every picture we send, every article we write and every conversation we have, in a way that can't easily be beaten by euphemisms or thinly-veiled references.

The obvious use cases are fighting CSAM, fighting spam, child safety, censoring all evidence of protests and finding everybody who expresses anti-government sentiments. The non-obvious use cases, which are, in many ways, even scarrier, are ensuring that people don't break platform rules.

Think "dating app where you can chat for free, but the app will ban you if you try to meet up IRL without paying a fee first."

This gives tech platforms weird powers and business models they never had before.

This won't affect Whats App (as long as end-to-end encryption holds), but it will definitely affect Tinder, Airbnb, Craigslist, Instagram, Uber, eBay etc.