President Jair Bolsonaro (PL) met with Meta’s president Guilherme Horn in Brazil this Wednesday morning (27). The main topic was WhatsApp a few weeks ago. Announced that it will launch the “Communities” feature in Brazil only after the 2022 Elections.
The announcement that the messaging app’s new group tool will no longer launch in Brazil angered Bolsonaro. The Chief Executive Officer was also not satisfied with the agreement signed between WhatsApp and the Supreme Election Court (TSE).
Communications Minister Fábio Faria also attended today’s meeting. At the press conference held after the meeting, he announced that the Meta representative drew attention to the following points. Postponement of Communities in Brazil did not happen due to agreement with TSE..
“WhatsApp has made it clear that it has never responded to the TSE’s request that these community-related changes be made only after the elections, as Meta has done. This did not happen. They made a global decision by looking at the competitors, the world market,” Faria argued.
Discussing with Communities
Communities were made official by WhatsApp on April 14. The tool allows thousands of people to gather in a “large group” on a particular topic of interest, within which they can receive notifications, organize smaller groups and discuss important topics.
Shortly after talking about the feature, the app warned that it would delay the launch in Brazil and leave it until the 2022 Elections as the function will come to mobiles elsewhere.
The truth angered President Jair Bolsonaro, as the information at the time was that WhatsApp had decided to delay the launch due to a deal with TSE. The court watches with concern social media that could be used to spread false election information.
“That’s what WhatsApp is doing all over the world, that’s okay. “Now, to open an exception for Brazil, that is unacceptable, unacceptable, and from the information I have so far, this agreement they made with Brazil by chance will not be fulfilled,” he said.
Source: Tec Mundo
