Digital Discourse Database

Number of Posts: 4
Posts 1 - 4

China Blocks WhatsApp, Broadening Online Censorship

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Newspaper | The New York Times
Date | 25.9.2017
Language | English
Country | U.S.
Topic Tags | censorship, threat, WhatsApp
Summary | The messaging app WhatsApp has been blocked in China. WhatsApp -which is owned by Facebook- was the last of Facebook products available in China. Indeed, both Facebook and Instagram are unavailable in China. To block the messaging app WhatsApp, the Chinese government may have created a special system that can intercept WhatsApp messages. Because of censorship in China, users have to turn to other messaging apps that can be easily controlled by the Chinese government (e.g. WeChat). When WhatsApp was blocked, many Chinese users complained.
Image Description | Photograph of a man staring at his phone.
Image Tags | male(s), smartphone

China Disrupts WhatsApp Service in Online Clampdown

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Newspaper | The New York Times
Date | 18.7.2017
Language | English
Country | U.S.
Topic Tags | censorship, Facebook, Google, Instagram, privacy, threat, Twitter, WhatsApp
Summary | The Chinese government has partly shut down the use of WhatsApp within their borders. The app is widely used around the globe and was used by some in China do communicate with people outside of Chine with end-to-end encryption. Other popular social media platforms and internet sites like Google, Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram are blocked under the "Great Firewall" in China.
Image Description | Woman using a smartphone and women standing in front of Facebook and Instagram logos as well as emojis.
Image Tags | emojis, Facebook, female(s), Instagram, logo, smartphone

As Elites Switch to Texting, Watchdogs Fear Loss of Transparency

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Newspaper | The New York Times
Date | 6.7.2017
Language | English
Country | U.S.
Topic Tags | law, politics, privacy, threat, WhatsApp
Summary | The powerful elites are using the end-to-end-encrypted WhatsApp to communicate sensitive information. Such strategies are adopted by politicians, high-profile representatives of major companies, and Wallstreet banker. The latter are lawfully obligated to save all communications for possible inspection but WhatsApp enables them to escape that law.
Image Description | Image of a man talking on the phone and another man reading some paperwork.
Image Tags | male(s), smartphone

WhatsApp Finally Adds Fully-Encrypted Video Calling Service

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Newspaper | Huffington Post
Date | 15.11.2016
Language | English
Country | U.S.
Topic Tags | privacy, WhatsApp
Summary | WhatsApp announced that it will soon be possible to have end-to-end encrypted video calls. Since WhatsApp has been acquired by Facebook, they have been able to use Facebook's huge infrastucture which enabled them to include online calls and now video calls, too. Users seem very worried about government surveillance, especially now that Donald Trump has been elected. WhatsApp still keeps dossiers of their users' contact lists and other meta-data but not of the content of their messages. Initially in the WhatsApp/Facebook merger, the companies ensured users that their data of the two platforms would not be connected but their privacy policy has recently changed, breaking this promise.
Image Description | Getty image of a hand holding an iPhone with just a huge WhatsApp icon on it. A video explaining the new adjustments to WhatsApp's user privacy policy.
Image Tags | hand(s), smartphone

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