The Turkish presidency will switch to the local BiP application to inform journalists about the controversial new terms of use of WhatsApp.
The press office of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan says it is giving up WhatsApp after the messaging app began to force many of its users to accept a controversial new privacy policy.
Speaking on WhatsApp on Sunday, presidential officials said the media office would update journalists via BiP, a unit of Turkish communications company Turkcell, on Monday.
Following the forced update of WhatsApp in its privacy policy this week, users in Turkey opposed it on Twitter with the hashtag #DeletingWhatsapp.
According to Turkish state media citing Turkcell, BiP gained over 1.12 million users in just 24 hours, with over 53 million users worldwide.
The changes made to the WhatsApp terms and services will take effect on February 8 and will allow it to share data with the parent company Facebook and its other subsidiaries.
Users must agree to the new terms in order to continue using the application after the deadline.
On Saturday, Ali Taha Koc, head of Turkey’s Presidential Digital Transformation Bureau, criticized WhatsApp’s new terms of service and exemption from new data-sharing rules for users in the UK and the European Union.
He urged Turks to use “national and local” applications such as BiP and Dedi.
“The distinction between EU and other Member States in terms of data confidentiality is unacceptable! As we quoted in the Information and Communications Security Guide, applications of foreign origin present significant risks in terms of data security “, Koc said in a tweet.
“That’s why we need to protect our digital data with local and national software and develop it according to our needs. Let’s not forget that Turkey’s data would remain in Turkey due to local and national solutions. “
New rules
The company said the updated terms will allow additional exchange of information between WhatsApp and Facebook and its other applications, such as Instagram and Messenger, such as contacts and profile data, but not the content of messages that remain encrypted.
Facebook aims to monetize WhatsApp, allowing companies to contact their customers through the platform and sell them products directly using the service, as they already do in India.
Facebook has been under increasing pressure from regulators as it tries to integrate its services.
In 2017, the EU fined the US social media giant 110 million euros (then 120 million dollars) for providing incorrect and misleading information about the 2014 WhatsApp takeover of the ability to link accounts between services.
U.S. federal and state regulators have accused Facebook of using its WhatsApp and Instagram purchases to crush competition and filed antitrust lawsuits last month seeking to force the company to drop them.
In November, Turkey fined global social media companies, including Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, £ 10 million ($ 1.18 million) each for violating a new social media law.
The new law, which came into force in October, requires platforms with more than a million daily users in Turkey to appoint a responsible representative to Turkish courts, comply with orders to remove “offensive” content within 48 hours, and store user data in Turkey.