WhatsApp, the most popular messaging application of today, launched the timed messages feature last year. Operating under the umbrella of Meta, the application announced a new update for this feature with its announcement today. With this update, timed messages can be set as default in all new chats started.
With this update, messages sent to newly launched chats will be limited to 24 hours, 7 days and 90 days. But this new feature of WhatsApp brought some concerns with it. One of these concerns was voiced by child rights activists. Groups that strive to protect children’s rights claimed that with this change, detection of abuse will become more difficult.
“Evidence can be quickly erased”
The UK’s National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (NSPCC) has described the new update of WhatsApp as a ‘badly thought out step’. Andy Burrows, head of child safety online policy at the NSPCC, said the feature will enable criminals to quickly delete evidence of child abuse, making it even more difficult for law enforcement to charge offenders and protect children.
NSPCC also stated that this feature will increase the severity if it comes to Instagram or Facebook, other platforms of Meta. In the current situation, a harasser on Instagram can be detected more easily than WhatsApp due to the security difference, while worse scenarios may occur when the same protection and feature comes to Instagram. Finally, Burrows stated that the combination of end-to-end encryption and disappearing messages features will not pass the risk assessment process in the UK.
Meta announced in November that the end-to-end encryption feature will be available in 2023. Meta’s head of security, Antigone Davis, explained that the company can detect harassment through unencrypted data, account information, and user reports.
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