WhatsApp beta lets group admins delete messages from everyone – Tablets and phones – News

For starters, this feature does not stop anyone from expressing its expression. If your “opinion” from a group conversation is removed by an administrator, that doesn’t stop you from proclaiming it in p2p conversations or your own set up group conversation, with the same technology.

Moreover, you have to take an active action to be able to speak of censorship at all. Just because the option is there doesn’t mean you’ll use it. Many countries have included lèse majesté in their laws, few countries actually use that power to censor.

In addition, you are sometimes required by law to delete certain messages. Just think of the distribution of personal data or images without permission.

Anyway, maybe you have a completely different view on censorship, luckily we live in a trias politica, so you are always free to challenge this in a court of law. But I think the chances are pretty real that your case won’t even be accepted.

Plus let’s be realistic for a moment, this will mainly be used for removing spam or messages that don’t belong in a particular group conversation. However, if you think they’re going to use this to censor your opinion, that says more about your opinion than this feature: https://xkcd.com/1357/

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