Mainstream news site Politico is lamenting that WhatsApp Channels, which allows users to make public posts, not just communicate within private chats, is not censoring “election misinformation” – a term which is often little more than a euphemism for information that is lawful but politically distasteful to progressives – ahead of elections this year in the UK and US.
In a piece on Friday, Politico’s tech policy reporter Rebecca Kern complained that WhatsApp Channels has no “explicit election-disinformation policies.” WhatsApp Channels transforms WhatsApp from a private messaging and group chat service into a broadcast platform as well, with users able to follow posts from public accounts.
As reported by the Federalist, the outlet cited “lawmakers, disinformation experts and former Meta employees” to parrot concerns that such a lack of speech-policing “could pose grave risks in a year when nearly half the globe is casting major votes.”
WhatsApp is owned by Meta, which also owns Facebook, Instagram, and Threads. Meta’s other platforms have what Politico euphemistically describes as “clear guardrails” against “election misinformation.” Some of those “guardrails” include censorship of content that Meta deems “likely to directly contribute to interference with the functioning of political processes and certain highly deceptive manipulated media,” according to Meta policy.
This content appears to include information which is legally protected in the UK. Last week, news emerged that a high-profile charity that speaks out against gender ideology had had its Instagram page permanently deleted in what appears to be a platform-wide clamp-down on critics of gender ideology (Reduxx).
Sex Matters is a registered charity in the United Kingdom, and describes its mission as being “to promote clarity about sex in law, policy and language in order to protect everybody’s rights”.
The Sex Matters deletion comes in an apparent wave of censorship of account users who hold similar views on the topic of “gender critical” beliefs and are critical of trans activism. Many users had their accounts suspended concurrently, with some reinstated on appeal while others remain permanently banned, impacting their ability to advertise artwork and their political views.
A spokesperson for WhatsApp partners said the app partners with more than 50 so-called “fact-checking” groups and told Politico it “can remove content and revoke accounts that violate its community guidelines.”
“This is a one-to-many broadcasting service where you can privately follow and get updates from who you want to follow,” the spokesperson continued, adding: “There’s less of a social element than other platforms since followers can’t respond or comment, no one can see what Channels you follow or who else is following a certain Channel.”
But apparently that’s not enough censorship for Politico’s taste.
The outlet cited Rep. Adam Schiff to demand WhatsApp Channels censor so-called “election misinformation” — which often means information that’s inconvenient for progressives — ahead of the election because if they don’t, “democratic processes in the United States and across the globe” would be threatened.
Similarly, chairman of the 6th January committee Rep. Bennie Thompson told Politico he hopes Meta will create and enforce rules against disfavored election speech to “protect democratic institutions, especially the right to vote and have confidence in election results” — because nothing screams “confidence in election results” like censoring speech about them.
