WhatsApp : 48 Hours To Accept New Terms Or Delete Your Account

WhatsApp’s new terms go live this week—you have until the end of day Wednesday to accept by default or delete your account—but the issue behind those terms has just become headline news, highlighting the risks for millions of users.

On the surface, the change to WhatsApp’s terms of service to comply with Europe’s Digital Markets Act (DMA) is straightforward.

Those impacted will see their terms of service change by default on April 11. But all WhatsApp users should take note.

Europe’s DMA has become a pipe cleaner for regulatory scrutiny of big tech elsewhere—especially in the US.

The Department of Justice and others will watch to see the impact of changes to Apple, Google and Meta’s platforms, amongst others. And on the messaging front, WhatsApp’s changes are furthest advanced.

WhatsApp’s change of service terms deal with its need to engage with platforms like Sunbird, to enable its third-party chat hub to work.

This will be the first time one of the hyper-scale secure messengers has opened its walled garden to allow other platforms to engage its users. It’s a game-changer.