Argentina maintains restriction against WhatsApp policies
The Argentine government extended the measure that restricts the updating of WhatsApp policies, specifically those of privacy
The Secretary of Internal Trade of the Government of Argentina extended the prohibition to update WhatsApp’s privacy policies.
According to a resolution published in the country’s Official Gazette, the Executive decided to maintain the ban implemented in May 2021 until an ongoing investigation for alleged “abuse of dominant position” by the messaging firm is concluded.
The Government indicated in May of last year that the messaging platform and its parent Facebook incurred in a “situation of abuse of a dominant position”, since “there is empirical evidence that the worldwide demand for the WhatsApp Messenger application, with more of 2,000 million users, it far exceeds platforms such as Telegram”.
In this sense, the Administration of Alberto Fernández argues that the application seeks with its update to generate “metadata to profile users/buyers, that is, to generate an asset that is difficult to replicate by potential competitors or, in other words, to generate entry barriers in the online advertising market, all in probable violation of the competition defense regime”.
“Updating the service conditions and privacy policy of WhatsApp Messenger would strengthen the position of Grupo Meta in the online advertising market, making it possible to obtain new data or, at least, to maintain an excessive or unjustified level of collection”, highlights the text published today by the Government.
The resolution orders the messaging firm and Meta to communicate to WhatsApp Messenger users, through the application or through the official website, the full text of the measure in Argentina.
Source: dpa
