Gregory's ServerMy reply was, “Nobody’s asked me ever for WhatsApp.”
I could have gone on a big spiel about the evils of Meta, and how Element is better but—trust me—no one in meatspace wants to hear that.
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12 comments
 @stevenbodzin Ironically, data is way less expensive here in Malaysia than in Canada. By orders of magnitude, in fact.  @atomicpoet We think it is a mistake to not converse about the ills of #FakeBook Corporation. It takes a few ppl to talk about this stuff before it sinks in and they explore ethical options. Remember #GetNEOED (Network Educate Organise Engage with power Disobey) in that order.  @atomicpoet Comparing to Canada is never fair, Canada is the worst. But anyway in 2010, when FB was rolling this out, mobile data was utterly inaccessible in most of the world. SMS and voice was also expensive. So WA became the default method for communication. @atomicpoet Outside North America, iMessage is only a thing used by hardcore and Apple fan users. Everywhere else it is basically WhatsApp, followed by Telegram. It is a lifeline for people. And although it clearly says it is from Meta, people doesn’t associate it at all with them. Amazing how they made to keep it split from everything else in people’s mind even trying very hard to don’t. @atomicpoet 99% of the time I use iMessage. Almost everyone I know uses an iPhone and iMessage just works. @atomicpoet Weirdly, declaring that you don’t use WhatsApp — while being a principled argument against Meta — is unfortunately at the same time very much a privileged North American position. In India and Asia in particular, not using WhatsApp is tantamount to “I don’t want to talk to anyone or do any business.” There /is no other option/. (Even here in the US, many Asian communities are WhatsApp exclusive. It’s either use it or don’t participate in the community.) @janakj The reason I say nobody wants to hear a spiel is because nobody wants to hear a spiel. Except, of course, here—where people are true believers. @atomicpoet I’d argue most WhatsApp users in Asia are not true believers. It’s purely network effects. WhatsApp got a toehold when other messaging services were too expensive, and switching costs are astronomical. You can argue (or not argue) to your heart’s content, but short of WhatsApp going down hard for days (or out of business), no one there is going to switch. @janakj I’m not talking about true believers in WhatsApp. I’m talking about true believers in Matrix/Signal/XMPP/etc. I’m not interested in arguing. @atomicpoet hahaha... welcome to South East Asia...! WhatsApp and Telegram are totally encroached in people's life there. You report faulty subway trains or traffic lights by sending a WA to the respective authority! 😅 |
@atomicpoet in most of the world, telecom has been very expensive over the years. But small local companies were able to offer people data connectivity through "Facebook everywhere" that offered unlimited free FB & Whatsapp. That program eventually ended but WA is now the default communications platform in most of the world.