The Turkish presidency will switch to the local BiP app to inform journalists following the controversial terms of use of WhatsApp.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s media cabinet says it is abandoning WhatsApp after the passage of the messaging app to force many of its users to accept a controversial new privacy policy.
In statements made on Sunday via WhatsApp, presidential officials said the media will update journalists via BiP, a unit of Turkish media company Turkcell, starting Monday.
Following the forced update of WhatsApp to its privacy policy this week, users in Turkey have opposed it on Twitter with the hashtag #DeletingWhatsapp.
According to Turkish state media citing Turkcell, BiP gained more than 1.12 million users in just 24 hours, with more than 53 million users worldwide.
Alternatives to WhatsApp terms and services will take effect on February 8 and will allow data sharing with parent company Facebook and its other subsidiaries.
Users must accept the new terms in order to continue using the app after the deadline.
On Saturday, Ali Taha Koc, head of the Turkish Presidential Digital Transformation Office, criticized the new terms of WhatsApp services and the exemption from the new data exchange rules for users in the UK and the European Union.
He called on the Turks to use “national and local” applications such as BiP and Dedi.
“The distinction between EU member states and others in terms of data privacy is unacceptable. As we mentioned in the Information and Communications Security Guide, applications of foreign origin carry significant risks in terms of data security, ”Koc said in a tweet.
“Therefore, we must protect our digital data with local and national software and develop it according to our needs. We must not forget that data from Turkey would be maintained in Turkey thanks to local and national solutions.”
New rules
The firm said the updated terms will allow it to share additional information between WhatsApp and Facebook and its other apps like Instagram and Messenger, such as contacts and profile data, but not the content of messages that are encrypted.
Facebook aims to monetize WhatsApp by enabling companies to contact their customers through the platform and sell them products directly through the service, as they already do in India.
Facebook has been under increasing pressure from regulators as it tries to integrate its services.
In 2017, the EU fined the US social media giant 110 million euros (then $ 120 million) for providing incorrect and misleading information about its 2014 acquisition of WhatsApp over the ability to link accounts between services.
U.S. federal and state regulators have accused Facebook of using its WhatsApp and Instagram acquisitions to crush competition and filed antitrust lawsuits last month with the goal of forcing the company to deviate from them. .
In November, Turkey fined global social media companies, including Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, £ 10 million ($ 1.18 million) each for failing to comply with a new social media law.
The new law, which came into force in October, requires platforms with more than a million daily users in Turkey to appoint a responsible representative in Turkish courts to comply with orders to remove “offensive” content. within 48 hours and store user data in Turkey.