Turkish Leader Opens Telegram Account After Presidential Administration Quits WhatsApp
Jan 13, 2021
Ankara (Turkey), January 13: Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has registered official accounts on the Telegram and BIP messenger apps, the leader's press office said on Tuesday, after it abandoned the WhatsApp messenger app following new data-based changes in the latter app's terms of service.
Developers of the WhatsApp messenger have updated the user agreement, adding a provision on personal data transfer to Facebook. The updated agreement says that WhatsApp, a part of the Facebook corporation, will share certain information about users to analyze habits and tastes as a means of delivering targeted advertising. In response, Turkish users, including high-ranking officials, are actively switching to alternative messenger apps. On Monday, the Ankara business competition watchdog suspended the new WhatsApp user agreement, in addition to launching a probe. Earlier on Tuesday, the Personal Data Protection Board of Turkey launched a probe into WhatsApp and Facebook over their new data policy.
As of 19:30 on Tuesday, over 77,000 people had subscribed to Erdogan's new Telegram account.
Source: Sputnik
