The operation of WhatsApp ads will change the application forever

This week, WhatsApp did something that its founders said he will never do: he puts Ads within the application. It ends up with WhatsApp, which is more than a decade -free correspondence and contact experience.

Meta, who got WhatsApp in 2014, tried to justify the decision by saying that ads will be isolated to the “update” tab, where you will see some of the status updates it sponsors. The WhatsApp case feature allows users to share photos, videos and text messages that disappear after 24 hours – but now you will see those companies as well. “If you only use WhatsApp to chat with friends and loved ones, there is no change in your experience at all.” He writes dead in her announcement.

But displaying ads in their own situation can be just the beginning of the dead, That tried more More than $ 160 billion of advertising revenues from all over Facebook and Instagram in 2024. Instead, WhatsApp limits ads targeting elements such as your city, country, language, the channels you follow, and the way you interact with ads. However, bringing the targeted ads to the platform at all inconsistent with its identity as the application of a “safe” correspondence – a principle whose founders aim to support.

The founders participating in WhatsApp Jan Koum and Brian Acton have made their position on the advertisement very clear. “Remember, when the advertisement participates You are the user It is the product, “in 2012 Read the WhatsApp Blog post. So he came to keep it Note from Acton scored his office, “No ads! No games! No tricks!” As a reminder of the type of application they should build.

Just two years after Meta acquired WhatsApp, the application moved from 99 cents a year to a Fullly free model. at that time , Whatsapp said It will continue to provide an “without third -party ads and random mail”.

Behind the scenes, I removed Mita and Mark Zuckerberg, the ongoing advertisement of Kom and Acton from Company. “The targeted advertisement is what makes me unhappy,” Acton said during Interview 2018 with Forbes Who explained his departure. In the following years, Meta is bound to bring ads to WhatsApp. He – she Plasting the plug on its idea in 2020 But later This possibility In 2023 before rolling ads for users now. WhatsApp also offers the ability to subscribe to the channels, and for companies to pay the price of upper sites on the “Explore” page of the channels.

“Thirteen years have gone through that our founders wrote an early version of WhatsApp,” says WhatsApp ANAIK Von Der Weid said in a statement he sent via e -mail to freedom. “Later, the experience we build still will not intersect your chats.” Von Der Weid adds that the company believes that the update tab is “the right place” for ads and other new features in Meta.

The truth is that Meta works are based on ads. It cannot help however Launching ads on topics Earlier this year, which is Planning for the launch of the tools of artificial intelligence To help companies make more ads. Meta also brought Chatbot AI to WhatsApp, where users can interact with robots in group messages, ask questions, and create pictures. the The company says You can read the messages that “Meta AI, or that people choose to participate with Meta AI,” raise the concerns of WhatsApp aims to repair With Amnesty International Chats.

The launch of the targeted ads only adds to these concerns. “This is another betrayal of protecting the WhatsApp once and attracted many of its users to the platform,” says John Divison, Director of Law at the Electronic Privacy Center (EPIC. freedom. “META has taken a service that promised any ads and minimal data collection and blocked it in other claws of the Empire of Observer.”

Many are not happy to add ads, as some users say on Radit that they are planning to switch to it Advertising -free signal application Because of the change. “A friendly reminder of people. The sign is a superior product designed for good,” One user writes. last commentMore than 3500 times says: “Story ethics: Never trust in Zuck. Still there Some users Not indifferent to change because it affects a tab they use frequently.

“The ecosystem for the Internet has been repeatedly displayed to calm privacy and security violations on a large scale,” said Bill Bodington, chief employee technician at the Electronic Border Foundation, said. freedom. “Although it is not a surprising step for Meta, it offers WhatsApp users 3 billion unnecessary risks, all for the liquefaction strategy that no one has requested and no one wants.”

Update, June 17: He added a statement from WhatsApp.