The introduction of ads on WhatsApp signals that the “enshittification” of the messaging service is almost complete, according to Electronic Frontiers Australia chair John Pane.

In a blog post, WhatsApp announced that ads would now appear in the Updates section of the app, which it said is used by up to 1.5 billion people each day.

The Updates section allows users to follow news and updates from companies, news organisations and celebrities.

“We’ve been talking about our plans to build a business that does not interrupt your personal chats for years and we believe the Updates tab is the right place for these new features to work,” the WhatsApp blog post said.

“The personal messaging experience on WhatsApp isn’t changing, and personal messages, calls and statuses are end-to-end encrypted and cannot be used to show ads.”

‘Enshittification’

Pane said that the original founders of WhatsApp had committed to never introduce ads to the platform, and the latest announcement is the beginning of the end.

“This latest ‘product enhancement’ is not only a final departure from WhatsApp’s founding principles, but it seems that the ‘enshittification’ of this once safe and trusted digital communications tool is almost complete,” Pane told Information Age.

WhatsApp confirmed that these ads will be targeted using a range of information gathered on users, including their age, location, language, channels they are following and how they’re interacting with the ads they are being served with.

For WhatsApp users that have linked their account with other accounts on Facebook or Instagram, data gathered from these apps will be used to serve the ads on WhatsApp.

The company said it will “never sell or share your phone numbers to advertisers” and that the advertising features have been built in the “most private way possible”.

But Pane said there are concerns around data privacy following the announcement.

“Despite WhatsApp making a range of ‘privacy promises’...why would you trust them when you consider the extensive litany of broken – often deliberately – privacy promises by Meta over the years,” he said.

“This latest change raises concerns and serious questions about the data compartmentalisation in Meta’s ecosystem.

“Given the integration of Meta AI into WhatsApp and the recent data leakage occurring via Meta AI, you really have to ask yourself, ‘why am I not using Signal?’”

Breaking a commitment

The introduction of ads on WhatsApp breaks a long-standing promise made by the messaging app’s co-founders, Jan Koum and Brian Acton.
The pair launched the service in 2009, and in 2014 a handwritten note taped to Koum’s desk was shared by a Sequoia Capital investor, which said: “No ads! No games! No gimmicks!”

The pair stuck by this commitment after WhatsApp was acquired by Facebook in 2014.

But they are no longer with the company, and Meta has long been trying to get revenue from WhatsApp, which boasts a huge user base.

WhatsApp also announced a new feature allowing channels on the platform to charge users a monthly fee for subscriptions to get exclusive updates, and for business owners to be able to pay to promote their channel’s visibility to new users.

The new features come after Meta introduced its generative AI services in WhatsApp early last year.

Meta’s acquisition of WhatsApp is also a key part of an ongoing antitrust lawsuit against the tech giant in the US.

The case alleges Meta acquired nascent rivals such as WhatsApp in order to neutralise competition against Facebook, and is trying to force Meta to divest or sell the platform.

In response, Meta has argued that acquisitions such as this were positive for competition as they allowed the company to invest billions of dollars to improve them for the benefit of the end users.