PieFedWhy the EU is Ditching WhatsApp
sabreW4K3https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YQlv43Loouc
cross-posted from: https://lazysoci.al/post/46761202
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naeapHaven’t looked at the different alternatives sponsored by European governments.
Are they actually E2E or is there a way for the government to finally have their long wanted backdoor implemented to snoop onto civilian communication?
Vittelius- A lot of the solutions are based on standards that already include E2E. The French and German platforms for example are just rebranded Matrix.
- the platforms are not intended for civilian communication. The video is a bit misleading when it talks about WhatsApp alternatives. A more accurate description would be “Slack alternative": A communications platform for government workers to message each other, so that potentially sensitive data isn’t stored on 3rd party servers.
Not only Slack - it is likely also a replacement for Signal. Even if Signal isn’t a US entity, it is still hosted outside of the EU.
Sure, technically it’s a replacement for a bunch of services. But from a institutional perspective you wouldn’t use Signal in the first place, just like you wouldn’t use WhatsApp. You want closed (as in no open participation not as closed source) systems where only employees can send messages in the first place. Traditionally you would use Slack or MS Teams for that.
That doesn’t mean that your employees wouldn’t use WhatsApp or Signal anyway and having a convenient alternative might curb that use.
loweffortnameMaybe you wouldn’t use Signal…
But what if you wanted really tight OpSec like the US DoD?
katethe belgium one is also clearly based on matrix from the screenshots https://beam.belgium.be/en/
LeonI don’t quite get why they need to rebrand these things. I have my own Nextcloud instance, as well as my own Matrix instance. I don’t go all “IT’S LEONDRIVE AND LEONCHAT” because that’s really silly.
Hope they also have people contributing upstream.
I’ve been using Threema for a while now. Got my family to move but most people don’t want to pay for it (it’s like 2 €) so I got like 16 contacts..
ProfThadBachGood. I’ve ditched all Meta products. Why support US American billionaires? These platforms have made them rich, but the users got little in return: anti-democracy groups, misinformation, hate, racism and childporn.
I get the why, but with what?
Matrix seems to be the most prevalent replacement for government communication in the EU. Lots of countries and orgs already use it and write their own software stack based on it. These are usually private federations so not connected to the rest of the public matrix network.
BarbarianGovernmental messaging platforms. This video is about government workers.
GollumDid you watched the video?
Basically every some EU countries started at some point building their own instant Messenger.
- Germany has the Bundesmessenger, the BwMessenger (for the armed forces) and the TI-Messenger (TIM) for the healthcare sector
- Luxembourg has Luxchat4Gov and Luxchat
- France has the Tchap
- Belgium has BEAM
- Poland also has plans to do something
- Sweden mandated the use of open and federated chat protocols. (Via the eSam framework)
Basically all of them are based on Matrix.
Would be interesting how these apps can be used by individuals and how the interoperability works, between the different services. While I understand that some of this services are not meant for this, it would be nice to have sort of European framework in place to also replace features like WhatsApp Business and WhatsApp in general.
Frances Tchap and Germanys BwMessenger. block external federation for example.
As said in the video several countries as well as the European commission are working on their own apps.
I’ve seen a lot of people in my social circle switching over to Signal. Some groups have moved and some of my private chats have switched, too. That might depend on your social circle, but I see it in mine
why did they ever use it to begin with? why are humans so fucking stupid? Why do people still make it their national identity that [insert country here]ians use whatsapp?
why did they ever use it to begin with
In the late 2000s SMS used to be expensive if you used a lot of them. When mobile internet became widespread & affordable, whatsapp was first to grab that market.
I don’t think it’s really a identity-thing. A lot of people are just used to it and don’t even think about alternatives (even if they should).
miskEU governments, not EU people. Was curious where they got this from but it was just a misleading clickbait title.
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It came out that every single key and convo is available on WhatsApp’s servers, and they do access it internally. We ofc already suspected it, but now it’s confirmed.
It’s also a US company, which I think answers everything without needing more explanation.
To those who still doesnt know, look at US Cloud Act.
Yeah. When I moved to Europe, everyone used WhatsApp. Its impossible to get around without it. I’m leaving now and it will be deleted faster than you can say fascism.
Europeans are leaving WhatsApp by the dozens!
The video is talking about governments and EU institutions, not general users.